The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) on Thursday stated that it fully supported its affiliates, the National Union of Mineworkers (Num) and the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa), in their wage disputes with employers in the mining, steel and engineering sectors.
The union federation contended that the wage increases being demanded by both unions were entirely reasonable.
“They are justified by the need for workers to recover from the fall in their real wages caused by the rocketing of food prices last year. They are fully in line with Cosatu’s longstanding commitment to close the apartheid wage gap which historically left the black workforce on poverty wages, far below those of white workers,” Cosatu said.
South Africa’s three major gold miners — AngloGold, Gold Fields and Harmony — all face strike action from Sunday, while two of the country’s coal miners — BHP Billitons, Ingwe and Kuyasa — also remain on course for strike action, Num spokesperson Moferefere Lekorotsoana said on Wednesday.
Talks between the Num and gold and coal companies on wage increases and benefits reached a deadlock last week, prompting the union to call for a strike in the industry.
Approximately 160 000 mine workers are expected to go on strike on Sunday July 27.
Cosatu said it rejected the gold mine employers’ “crocodile tears” about the impact of the strong rand.
“Last year when the rand was weak and the gold price high, the industry made record profits but did not share these out among their workers. They cannot now use the strong rand as an excuse to refuse the workers’ legitimate demands.”
The union also said it joined the Num in deploring the threat by Durban Roodepoort Deep to close two mines employing 13 000 workers.
“This is a clear attempt by DRD [Durban Roodepoort Deep] to try to force the union to accept their meagre wage offer which Num is right to reject.”
Meanwhile, trade union Solidarity is meeting with Numsa in an effort to discuss which line of protest action they will embark upon in the metal and engineering industry.
All six trade unions in the local metal and engineering industry are now in dispute with the Steel and Engineering Industry Federation of South Africa (Seifsa) over key issues on the bargaining table.
The dispute revolves around wage increases for the second year of the proposed two-year agreement and a demand for additional family responsibility leave for workers.
South Africa’s largest steel producer Iscor said on Tuesday it was still hopeful of a negotiated wage settlement with its representative trade unions, notwithstanding their decision to declare a dispute with the company during the current round of wage negotiations.
Cosatu said it agreed with Numsa that Iscor has been “dogmatic and inflexible” over the union’s claim by offering a below-inflation wage increase.
“We share Numsa’s concern that Iscor’s proposed bonus system will force workers to compete amongst themselves and create deep divisions.”
The trade union added that it fully supported the non-wage demands that Numsa was putting to Seifsa, on issues such as apprenticeships and anti-retroviral treatment.
Cosatu said it hoped that these disputes could still be settled satisfactorily through negotiation, but that if the unions were forced to take strike action, the federation would fully support them. – I-Net Bridge