Three-hundred thousand National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) members will on Thursday join the national general strike called for by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) against joblessness, the NUM said on Wednesday.
“The right to work is an important and fundamental aspect of any society, more so a society in development. Over the past three years the sectors that are organised by our union — mining, energy and construction — have been hard hit by the shedding of jobs. Most unfortunately, even now in a changed and favourable climate to employers, jobs have not been created,” said NUM General Secretary Gwede Mantashe.
The mining industry, over the past two to three years, laid off between 40Â 000 and 50Â 000 workers under the pretext of a strong rand currency and a weak United States dollar price of gold, the union said.
Over the past 18 months that scenario had changed, with platinum climbing to a record high of $1Â 340 an ounce and gold reaching a 26-year high of $730,30/oz, translating into bigger profits for the mining companies, the NUM said.
“Despite this, none of the companies have seen it fit to open closed shafts and re-hire the retrenched workers,” the union added.
“Similarly, the boom in construction that is a result of government investment in infrastructure and the increased demand for electricity, coupled with the re-commissioning of mothballed power stations, has not translated in the creation of jobs,” the NUM said.
“This reality, in our view, suggests that employers are not interested in making this important contribution to our society and its economy. All they are about is to swell their own pockets and coffers,” the union said.
“What is disturbing is that some of these employers, when approached on this matter, they want the union to sign a conditional employment clause indicating that they will only re-employ if the union agrees to these workers being dismissed en mass should the conditions change. That would be careless on our part and a suggestion that we have no laws governing and regulating such processes,” said Mantashe. — I-Net Bridge