A settlement with unions involved in the nationwide gold miners’ strike was very close, the Chamber of Mines said on Thursday evening.
Spokesperson Frans Baker said the chamber had offered an increase of between six and seven percent — and seven percent for lower paid workers — on behalf of all four major mining houses.
He said the chamber was expecting feedback from the unions on Friday.
Earlier on Thursday, the trade union Solidarity asked the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) to intervene in the gold miners’ strike.
”In its letter to the CCMA, Solidarity says that the Chamber of Mines has, for all practical purposes, disbanded as a forum for further negotiations,” deputy general secretary Dirk Hermann said in a statement.
Solidarity’s 10 000 workers began striking at midnight on Monday, after the 80 000-strong National Union of Mineworkers embarked on the strike at 6pm the previous day.
The union on Wednesday expressed frustration that the chamber had ”disintegrated,” with mining houses making their own offers to unions. The ensuing ”chaos” would delay finding a settlement, Solidarity spokesperson Reint Dykema said.
On Monday AngloGold Ashanti presented an offer independently of the chamber’s proposal of between 4,5% and five percent.
Its new offer included a 6,5% increase for its upper-level workers and 5,25% for miners, artisans and officials, company spokesperson Shelagh Blackman said.
Unions were demanding increases of between eight and 10%. On Wednesday Harmony Gold offered workers an increase of between five and 6,5%, company spokesperson Brenton Saunders said.
”We’re the only company still left that’s negotiating under the banner of the Chamber of Mines.”
He said the company had not left the chamber because ”that was the arrangement up front”.
Hermann said the ”disintegration” of the chamber put unions into an ”impossible” negotiating position.
”Formal negotiations were conducted with the chamber, but settlements now have to be negotiated with individual companies,” Hermann said.
He appealed to AngloGold Ashanti and Goldfields to match Harmony’s offer, in order to end the strike quickly.
The trade union would ask its members whether or not to continue the strike as soon as it had clarity on the new offers. The United Association of SA (Uasa) said while its formal demand was still for a 12% increase, it was ”definitely not” the union’s bottom line.
”The offer that’s on the table at the moment is quite close to what’s responsible and fair,” Uasa official Tim Kruger said.
Uasa was still getting a mandate from its 16 000 members — mainly those in ”strategically important positions” — about the newest wage offers.
All of its members were still reporting for work.
”We might not even embark on a strike, it’s a possibility,” said Kruger. – Sapa