Chamber of Mines reopens wage talks
Negotiations due next year move forward
A WAGE increase is on the cards for gold and coal mine workers after the Chamber of Mines agreed to reopen negotiations following a wave of illegal strikes in the sectors, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) says.
In an attempt to end the crippling strikes, representatives of the NUM, Solidarity and the United Association of SA met with the chamber yesterday, after a request by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) that wage negotiations scheduled for next year be moved forward and for a commission of inquiry into working and living conditions in the mining industry.
A meeting will be held between mine bosses and the African National Congress today, to further probe problems in the industry.
The chamber yesterday agreed to reopen negotiations on raises for entry-level workers; an adjustment or upgrade for operators, including rock drill oper- ators; and to investigate “a package for social labour plans and transformation in general”, the NUM said in a statement.
The chamber could not be reached for comment last night.
NUM general secretary Frans Baleni said ahead of the talks that an “ideal scenario” would be for the chamber to present a firm figure for increases.
The unions and the chamber agreed yesterday to meet again next Tuesday when the figure would be presented.
Mr Baleni was cautiously optimistic after the meeting.
“At this stage, it is still a statement of intent, we still have to get the content in rand and cents. We are positive that there will be something, in all likelihood not for everybody, but more for the lower end,” he said.
He warned that workers’ “powerful tool of last resort” — strike action — should not be abused. “We don’t want a victory of today to be a permanent defeat
of tomorrow,” Mr Baleni said. The demand to grade operators was first made 10 years ago, he said. “We are of the view that operators, including rock drill operators, are not at an appropriate level in terms of the grading.”
On Tuesday Cosatu, the NUM and Mineral Resources Minister Susan Shabangu blamed mine bosses for the strikes, particularly at Implats, which raised wages twice after illegal stoppages.
Mr Baleni added that there was a “leadership deficit” in the Department of Labour to enforce legislation. Labour laws were supposed to regulate relationships between organisations and not individuals, he said.
“If you are not going to insist, as the Department of Labour, on compliance to these laws you are going to have anarchy,” he said.
“Groups of rock drill operators, for example, say they want something and tomorrow you have another category of workers saying they are the voice of yet another grouping … you are not talking to any legal body.”
At Lonmin, striking miners shunned unions, opting to negotiate directly, a process facilitated by the department.
Musa Zondi, Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant’s spokesman, said last night that “unions should take responsibility, and right now they are not taking the correct responsibility”.
He said at Lonmin, unions had opened the wage talks. All the department had done was to bring in the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration to mediate.
Mr Baleni also urged the government to condemn the violence which accompanied the illegal strikes. Since August, more than 40 people have been killed and many injured, including NUM officials. He said a more sustainable, long-term solution to improving the economic and social conditions of mineworkers was needed to prevent a recurrence of the crisis.
“The more we do the more people have more expectations. In my experience as a negotiator, whatever you achieve only lasts for 90 days. Beyond 90 days people want more,” Mr Baleni said.