An estimated 10 000 workers are to strike at Durban Roodepoort Deep (DRD) to protest against retrenchments at DRD operations in the North West, miners said on Tuesday.
DRD said 4 504 mineworkers would lose their jobs at its operations in the North West because the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) was unwilling to save about 3 000 jobs from the total figure.
The planned strike, which sought to force DRD to abandon its intention to retrench the mineworkers, would start on Sunday night, NUM spokesperson Moferefere Lekorotsoana said.
He said the protest action would be carried out because the union could not reach an agreement with DRD management on the retrenchments.
The NUM would declare its intention to strike once the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration gave it a notice on Tuesday, Lekorotsoana said in a statement.
“The company will be given a 48-hour notice, and the strike will commence on Sunday night,” he said. “Despite our strike action, we are still willing to engage them to seek alternatives, but retrenchment is certainly not an option.”
Lekorotsoana accused DRD management of retrenching workers because its North West operations were not viable, yet the firm was willing to outsource them to a contractor.
DRD spokesperson James Duncan responded: “That’s outrageous. We could not get any move from the NUM.” — Sapa
Thousands of mining jobs to be shafted