PHILLIP NKOSI, Middelburg | Wednesday 2.25pm
ANGLO American Coal Corporation (Amcoal) is to meet the National Union of Mineworkers later on Wednesday to try to end a five-day strike by 9000 miners in eight of the company’s nine mines in Mpumalanga.
NUM provincial chairman Crosby Moni said the meeting was called by Amcoal, and will take place in the afternoon. The union is demanding a 9% wage increase and the company has so far offered 7,5%. About 3500 NUM members who were also on strike at Ingwe Coal Corporation mines in the province went back to work on Wednesday said Moni.
The strike ended on Monday after a pay rise of 8%, backdated to July, was accepted. Ingwe will also pay a further 1% in line with the consumer index price for two years.
“The company has agreed in principle to the establishment of an agency shop,” Moni added. This would mean that non-union members who benefited from NUM negotiations would have to pay the union 1% of their monthly salaries. Moni said the money will be used for education and training projects in local communities.
Anglo spokeswoman Marion Brower was not available on Wednesday.
On Tuesday she said eight of nine Anglo mines in Mpumalanga are affected by the strike, and the exception was New Clydesdale. She said that 50% of the workforce is on strike. “There is some production in the affected mines,” she added. Brower said Anglo has enough stockpiled coal to meet short-term demands. — African Eye News Service