Botswana’s Debswana Diamond Mining Company and the Botswana Mining Workers’ Union (BMWU) are talking informally on a resolution to the three-day-old illegal strike at three mines.
”We are exploring ways of a compromise,” BMWU general secretary Donald Lobotse said on Wednesday.
Debswana personnel manager Jacob Sesinyi confirmed the talks.
”Both of us are concerned about the welfare of the workers who are on illegal strike. The disciplinary process has started, strikers are being fired. Once the process reaches a faster pace and we start to hire new workers, Debswana cannot be responsible for what happens to them.”
Strikers said the workers had been dismissed instantly and they and their families ordered to quit mine housing by the end of August.
Lobotse said his proposals include the reinstating of the fired workers. The strike could end before a contempt-of-court hearing against strikers and all union officials resumes on Thursday.
”We cannot rule it out,” he said.
The hearing was postponed on Tuesday. The strikes were ruled illegal and the workers were warned of contempt charges if they stopped work.
Lobotse insisted any new talks must start with Debswana’s offer at the time negotiations deadlocked being ”on the table”.
”They must drop the stand that the offer is not negotiable,” he said.
Negotiations deadlocked in July. The union was demanding a 16% increase in the cost of living allowance plus 25% of the 2003 annual salary as a one-off production bonus.
Debswana’s offer is 10% cost of living, plus a production bonus of 10%, with minimum payment of 3 500 pula, which the company has been insisting is final.
Sesinyi said on Wednesday production has not been seriously affected.
Botswana’s President Festus Mogae, whose intervention before the strike resulted in the Debswana bonus offer being raised to 10% from 5%, has now indicated the illegality of the strike prevents him from any further intervention, but that he would be willing to facilitate a return to negotiations.
Botswana is the world’s largest producer of diamonds; 30-million carats were sold in 2003. The industry is the backbone of the country’s economy. Debswana is a 50/50 partnership between De Beers and the Botswana government. — Sapa