CCMA bungles mine wage talks
Negotiator slams poor standard of mediation and lack of expertise by union representatives
THE Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) decided this week that its efforts to mediate an end to the strike that has all but closed South Africa’s platinum mining industry were going nowhere.
Its admission of defeat came six weeks after the minister of labour summoned the negotiators of the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) and the platinum mining companies — Anglo American, Impala and Lonmin — to the commission and announced she was providing them with three facilitators who would sort out the strike.
Although Amcu has been accused of negotiating in bad faith, the chief negotiator of the Chamber of Mines, Elize Strydom, says she is appalled by the poor standard of mediation.
The CCMA facilitators set the tone early in the negotiations when they presented a 25% to 30% entry-level increase proposal to the companies, which had offered 8.5%, based on closely argued and comprehensively illustrated economic factors.
The facilitators prefaced their proposal with the extraordinary admission that their proposal did not take into account the companies’ economic circumstances. This rendered the proposal meaningless and raised serious questions about the CCMA’s capacity to achieve a settlement.
Basic entry-level pay at the mines is R5 700. Amcu demanded R12 500, an increase of 120%. In effect, the CCMA was saying to the platinum companies: “Tell you what, go halfway, aim for R8 500. Never mind the economic circumstances, it’s the right thing to do.”
Strydom, 56, a world-class negotiator, has been sitting in the employer caucus advising the companies because Amcu objected to her sitting in the plenary, where the leadership, shop stewards, negotiators and
I quickly realised their negotiator had no knowledge of the gold mining industry. You have to talk about a rock drill operator, winding-engine drivers and why they’re paid what they’re paid, and you see the non-comprehension in the eyes of the negotiator of the union — Strydom on Amcu’s negotiators
facilitators sit together in one room. She was horrified by the CCMA facilitators’ proposal.
“It showed an absolute lack of economic acumen, an absolute lack of understanding and appreciation of where the platinum industry is, where the mining industry is.
“Senior commissioners of the CCMA need to understand
The National Union of Mineworkers and Solidarity are up to standard — Amcu not — Strydom on the professionalism in unions
economics, otherwise you cannot be a negotiator, let alone a facilitator or mediator.”
They also need a certain level of expertise in the industry in which they are mediating.
The CCMA facilitators do not have this knowledge, she says. This has made it “incredibly frustrating” for those negotiating on behalf of the companies.
She experienced the same frustration in last year’s gold miners’ wage negotiations with Amcu. “To have to start explaining to someone that travelling time underground in a gold mine is an hour and a half before you start to work is just, during wage negotiations, too much.”
The chamber invited Amcu to be part of the central-level negotiations, although it represents only 19% of employees in the gold mining sector.
“I quickly realised that their negotiator had no knowledge of the industry. You have to talk about a rock drill operator, winding-engine drivers and why they’re paid what they’re paid, and you see the non-comprehension in the eyes of the negotiator of the union.”
In her bilateral caucuses with Amcu, the rock drill operators would ask their own negotiator for permission to ask Strydom questions directly.
“They can see that I can answer the questions that they have, but they can’t leave it to their negotiator to ask the right questions because he doesn’t have the requisite knowledge or understanding.”
But it is only in bilaterals, that shop stewards have the opportunity to do this. In the allimportant plenary sessions, the Amcu negotiator, with his limited knowledge of the industry, is on his own.
“It’s scary,” says Strydom. “I’d rather sit opposite someone who gives me a really hard time but based on facts, experience, knowledge and logic.”
In response to Amcu’s refusal to budge on the R12 500 demand it made at Marikana in 2012, which helped it to become the majority union in the platinum mining sector, the CCMA facilitators told the companies they should not expect anything from the union and would have to make the first move themselves. “They told us be brave, be responsible, make a move,” says Strydom. “So we did.”
On January 27, four days after the strike began, the companies revised their offer from an 8.5% to 9% increase at entry level for year one, 8% in year two and 7.5% in year three. It had zero effect on Amcu. “We spent a long time producing overheads with schedules on a screen in the plenary with all the shop stewards there, showing them graphically what a 9% increase would mean.”
Amcu’s response was a “united sullenness”. There was no sense it was interested “even in engaging on that offer”.
Strydom says if Amcu, which she feels has been “able to hide
How can it be a fair decision for people to go on strike when 5 000 people in a stadium are asked: ‘Do you support this strike?’ You don’t put up your hand, and people look at you and say: ‘We know where you live and tonight we’re coming for you.’ What fairness is there in that?
behind the CCMA process”, refuses to take the offer to its members, she will advise the companies to “move towards unilateral implementation” — to go to their employees and say that as far as they are concerned “the negotiations are over”.
If “a critical mass” of the employees signal that they are prepared to accept the 9% offer, they will be invited to return to work and “regard the issue as settled”, she says.
It may have been this possible outcome that persuaded Amcu this week to announce it would allow the mines to implement its R12 500 demand over three years, instead of at once. Despite this first sign of movement from Amcu, the gulf between the sides remains unbridgeable, prompting the CCMA to announce it was shelving the mediation process.
Strydom says although she will advise going the unilateral route, it will “represent a failure” for her.
“I would much rather negotiate with a union that is well organised, professional and representing all its members than have to go straight to employees. These are desperate times and this would be a desperate measure.
“You want unions that are strong, professional, understand economics and truly care about their members. You want strong leadership from the companies, where you negotiate hard but in the end you settle, come to an agreement that strikes a balance between the demands and what is affordable. In gold, we managed to achieve this. The National Union of Mineworkers and Solidarity are up to standard — Amcu not. So in platinum this is a long way off.”
Like everyone else except the unions, Strydom wants strike balloting to be made law. Workers must be able to vote in privacy as a precondition for a protected strike, she says. “How can it be a fair decision for people to go on strike when 5 000 people in a stadium are asked: ‘Do you support this strike?’ You don’t put up your hand, and people look at you and say: ‘We know where you live and tonight we’re coming for you.’ What fairness is there in that?”
She was involved in 18 months of negotiations in the National Economic Development and Labour Council to win the agreement of the Department of Labour to strike balloting. But the government gave in to pressure by the unions and backtracked. “It was in the proposed labour law amendment, and it was taken out as a political deal between the ANC and Cosatu.”
Nedlac is a “charade”, she says, and she “wasted” her time there. “But it is the only body where we still have some semblance of social dialogue.”