Sidelined trade unions warn Lonmin on derecognition decision
LONMIN “will pay a heavy price” for its decision to derecognise Uasa, Solidarity and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) in favour of a majority deal with the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu), rival unions warned this week.
In what was hailed as a milestone deal when signed on Wednesday, Lonmin agreed to Amcu’s demands to collapse its two bargaining units into one and give it sole recognition at its operations.
Amcu represents 60% of Lonmin’s workforce, NUM 23%, Solidarity 4% and Uasa 3%. At least 30% will be needed for future representation.
Uasa, Solidarity and NUM represent more than 50% of workers in the second bargaining unit, which includes mainly skilled people like miners, artisans, office bearers and shift bosses. They will be deregistered within 90 days, but will be able to participate in this year’s wage negotiations, which are set to start next month.
“I can assure you Lonmin has made a serious miscalculation. They’re taking away representation for the majority of their skilled workers. This is a very strategic grouping,” said NUM general secretary Frans Baleni.
Deregistration would mean that unions affected could not even represent their members at disciplinary hearings.
Leaders at Solidarity and Uasa, whose members rarely strike and often keep essential services running when workers in lower skill and salary bands down tools, also warned that their members did not want to join Amcu and that they would exhaust all legal avenues to protect their members’ constitutional right to freedom of association.
All three unions expressed disgust at Lonmin’s failure to keep them abreast of the derecognition moves.
Baleni, Solidarity general sec- retary Gideon du Plessis and Uasa divisional manager Franz Stehring said Lonmin assured them over the past months that they would not sign a recognition agreement with Amcu that was based on the majoritarian principle and leave the smaller unions away from the bargaining table.
“We feel utterly betrayed,” said Stehring. “All along, Lonmin assured us that they will not collapse the bargaining units and sign a majority agreement with Amcu.
“They committed themselves explicitly to uphold the freedom of association of workers when they signed [Deputy President] Kgalema Motlanthe’s Framework for a Sustainable Mining Industry. And then they go into back-room dealings and only inform us telephonically on Wednesday morning, shortly before signing exactly such a deal with Amcu, that we will be deregistered,” said Stehring.
Du Plessis said it seemed Lonmin made an operational decision, thinking the new deal would “mean the end of the power struggle”, and wanted a symbolic gesture on the eve of the anniversary of the Marikana massacre to restore its corporate reputation.
“I feel they did not act with integrity in the way they dealt with us. We believe they made a huge error of judgment.
“We will explore every possible legal avenue to fight this,” Du Plessis said.
The decision to deregister NUM, Uasa and Solidarity may also haunt Lonmin at the wage bargaining table, where the unions are expected to play hardball to “throw a last punch” to management before their departure.
“In the past, Uasa and Solidarity have not been striking unions. We won’t do that any longer. Lonmin can no longer rely on our goodwill,” said Du Plessis.
Baleni said it “doesn’t make sense” that the NUM would be able to represent members during this year’s talks as its union offices had been closed.
“How are we supposed to canvass members to get a mandate, how do we get access, how do we negotiate? Our members are very angry.”
Negotiations between Lonmin and Amcu on a new recognition agreement started in January already. At the time Lonmin said it would negotiate for a multiunion framework responsive to the needs of all workers and their representatives. Since then, Amcu has gone on two unprotected strikes over the recognition matter and was threatening a third.
By signing the agreement, Lonmin appeased Amcu members and averted another strike.
Ben Magara, new Lonmin CEO, claimed that the agreement would bring about peace and stability on the mine.
Joseph Mathunjwa, Amcu’s president, said the new agreement was in line with labour legislation. Parties that had problems with this should take them to Nedlac.