Amcu has little to show as Sibanye strike ends

Five-month action cost R1.6bn and lost production of 110,000oz of gold, while nine people died

The five-month strike at Sibanye-Stillwater’s gold mines, in which nine people were killed, ended with very little to show for the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu), leaving it in a weakened position going into platinum wage talks.

Amcu called 14,000 of its members, representing about half of Sibanye’s gold workforce, out on a wage strike on November 21, despite three other unions signing a pay deal just days earlier.

The strike cost Sibanye R1.6bn and lost production of 110,000oz of gold as it struggled with violence and the intimidation of the balance of its workforce reporting for duty.

Mineral resources minister Gwede Mantashe said during a visit to areas around Carletonville that nine people had been killed and more than 60 houses burnt in strikerelated violence.

Analysts saw the strike as futile, damaging for both sides and ill-considered by union leadership ahead of platinum sector wage talks in June.

“This probably reduces the risk of a strike in the platinum belt. Those Amcu members will look at this outcome and think twice before they down tools for the promise of more than the other unions signed for,” said Nedbank analyst Arnold van Graan.

“It’s a big step-down for Amcu, which was calling for a long drawn-out battle just a week ago at the platinum group metals conference.

“We think Amcu misjudged this one and the ability of the miners to raise funds in preparation for a drawn-out battle,” he said.

Sibanye CEO Neal Froneman said — when asked in an interview with Business Day on Wednesday what had led to the end of the strike — that two back-to-back capital raising exercises, securing R3.5bn to shore up the balance sheet and

giving the company R10bn of funds in total, had most likely proved to be “the final straw”.

Sibanye could not only sit out the gold strike but also a protracted strike at its platinum mines around Rustenburg.

Sibanye also won a number of court battles, leaving Amcu on the back foot. Sibanye had just completed an independent union membership verification exercise that showed Amcu to be in the minority and no longer the biggest of the four unions, prompting the company to approach the court to have the strike declared unprotected and to extend the existing wage agreement to Amcu members.

If this had happened, Amcu members would not have received a R4,000 ex gratia payment and had truly nothing to show for their strike, said Nedbank analyst Leon Esterhuizen. He said Amcu had moved quickly to reach a settlement to avoid being in this position.

Asked during the signing ceremony at Sibanye’s office at Libanon near Westonaria what exactly the benefit was for the striking workers, Amcu president Joseph Mathunjwa cut a subdued figure, far from his bellicose, verbose self.

“The learnings are how to engage in the future to avoid such lengthy strikes between the employer and workers’ representatives,” he said, describing the settlement as a “win-win”.

“Sibanye knows how strong Amcu is, and Amcu knows how strong Sibanye is. If you can take those two energies in building a future that will benefit everyone I think that we would have learnt our lesson from the strike,” he said. Just days ago at a platinum conference, Mathunjwa said there would be a “revolution” if Sibanye expected Amcu members to “go back to work without money”.

After five months without a salary and a settlement identical to the one other unions signed in November, it is going to take more than 15 years for Amcu’s members to recoup their lost wages. The mines have on average 15 years of life left and Sibanye has started a formal process to lay off up to 6,670 people at its Driefontein and Beatrix gold mines.

It seems impossible for Amcu to claim that it secured its members any real benefit by the strike, with the R4,000 cash payment agreed to between the union and Sibanye’s management being made to all employees in the two to eight grade categories despite Mathunjwa citing it as a “win” for Amcu.

“That’s going to leave a bitter taste for the Amcu workers. Again, it points to the possibility that they will think twice before following Joseph into another strike in the platinum sector,” Van Graan said.

Sibanye agreed to grant Amcu members a soft loan of R5,000 repayable over 12 months and a bus trip back to work from their rural homes.

IT IS GOING TO TAKE MORE THAN 15 YEARS FOR AMCU MEMBERS TO RECOUP THEIR LOST WAGES