Trade unions in the gold-mining sector might be headed for strike action following the failure by the Chamber of Mines to meet their demands for a 15% wage increase, the unions said on Wednesday.
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and trade union Solidarity declared a dispute with employers on Wednesday following deadlocked negotiations, Solidarity deputy general secretary Dirk Hermann said.
”The trade unions will now report back to their members that the mining houses refuse to make a wage offer.
”If members are not willing to accept a 0% wage offer, we shall approach the Council for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration for a strike certificate,” he said.
The two unions represent mine workers at Harmony, Gold Fields and Anglo-Gold Ashanti gold mines.
”We find the actions of the companies astonishing. Refusing to make a wage offer to workers is asking for trouble.”
NUM’s general secretary Frans Baleni said it was ”regrettable that employers can adopt such attitude”.
”We believe that coming to the negotiation table with nothing to offer is an insult to workers and is reminiscent of the old apartheid order,” he said.
The Chamber of Mine’s chief negotiator, Elize Strydom, said: ”We are surprised and disappointed that the unions have prematurely rushed to dispute, particularly given that the parties have been unable to properly engage.”
She said employers had asked unions to prioritise their demands, which totalled 61.
”The chamber made constructive and substantive offers on a number of the 61 demands … some having very significant cost implications.
”However, the chamber indicated that it found it very difficult to make a decent wage offer without progress having been made in prioritising these demands.”
But NUM said it was ”impossible to reduce the demands”.
”The Chamber cannot tell us to reduce our ‘many’ demands because these are genuine demands of our members,” Baleni said. — Sapa