Unions and mine bosses prepare to wrestle with pay issues in South Africa’s biggest industry, reports Ferial Haffajee
FOR the next four months, mining and union bosses will be virtually incommunicado as the annual wage talks get under way. Busy cellphones and bated breath will be the order of the day.
But down on the mines, wage talks have been ongoing since January. In the shafts and the hostels, union representatives have been asking workers what they want included in this year’s negotiations.
“We then write down those demands and send them to head office,” says Godfrey Mofokeng, who works at the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) regional office in Carletonville. “This year we got some demands for a 50% increase.” Those demands are then fine-tuned by the union chiefs in Johannesburg and often substantially reduced before being sent back to the mines for a final okay from the workers.
Then the completed set is given to employers and the country’s most tactical game of give-and-take begins.
This week 6 000 members of the NUM met at the Western Deep Levels mine in Carletonville to hear the union’s final demand, which is likely to begin with a push for a 15% increase.
Western Deep, as its name suggests, is the world’s deepest mine -and one of its richest. Working conditions are better there than on most other mines; years of arm- wrestling with management have seen innovations uncommon to South African mining.
The hostel induna system has been replaced with a corps of hostel senators (elected by workers), who run the living and eating quarters with a R13-million budget. The union has full-time shaft-stewards, paid for by the company, who do only union work.
Better labour relations means the wage round is growing more sophisticated and is hardly the slanging match of old. “We won’t push for an across-the-board increase this year. We must get rid of the wage gap, so we want more for those in the lower categories,” says shaft steward Manelo Boqo.
Won’t this mean dissension in the ranks? “Most mine-workers are still illiterate, but Adult Basic Education [funded by management] is starting to work and workers understand more. And leaders must direct the people,” says Boqo.
He says the union wants a “living wage” of R1 800 a month and claims that “90% of workers here don’t earn that money”.
Alfred Simelane is a hostel senator at Western Deep Levels; he’s pushed for a 15% increase this year. “The cost of living is going up. I’ve got two wives and six children to support in Swaziland. Then there’s my parents and two nephews.”
A trip home to Swaziland costs R70 for a single journey; the price of meat has gone up and his favourite cool-drink, Fresca, now costs R8,40 for a 2-litre bottle, says Simelane. He earns R1 500 a month. Makara Raphoka, who is more experienced, earns R2 300 a month.
Raphoka thought that living apart from his wife in Lesotho would make life cheaper, but that’s not been the case. “In Lesotho, all schools are private schools. My firstborn’s doing standard seven. It’s costing me R2 300 this year. My other two children’s school fees will be about R1 000 each.”
The family needs other support too and although the mine supplies food and accommodation for workers, there are other incidentals such as toiletries and extra meat, which he buys. “The money we use now is valueless,” says Raphoka.
Meanwhile, at the other end of the miners’ compound, human resources manager Robbie Lazare has been doing another set of sums.
Studies by Anglo American, which owns Western Deep, show that the cost of mining there is higher than in the United States, Ghana, Canada and at other mines in South Africa. Mine managers will push for wage increases to be linked to greater productivity – and they want to keep costs down. Lazare says it costs $350 to mine an ounce of gold at Western Deep; the gold price is currently $343 an ounce and falling. “We cannot absorb an increase without upping production,” he says.
The industry is also facing competition from new mines being prospected in West Africa, Brazil and elsewhere. Labour is cheaper there as unions are non-existent or weaker than their South African counterparts.
And managers must also budget for the capital costs they will incur as South African mines go deeper and deeper. “Deep mining is going to cost us R2-billion. But it’s going to expand the mine’s life by 12 years,” says Lazare.
Both sides say that productivity bonuses are going to be a big feature of this year’s negotiations. Many mines are churning out more gold because they now pay workers extra for reaching set production targets. Managers often tell of workers taking home double and triple their pay because they’re working so much harder. But shaft-stewards hear other reports.
“Sometimes you get R7 a month. Another guy got R1,90,” says Simelane, adding one of those grassroots demands unlikely ever to make it to the hallowed halls of the Chamber of Mines. “Management is taxing bonuses at a high percentage. We want no tax on bonuses.”