About 11Â 000 South African miners working for De Beers, the world’s biggest diamond company, planned to launch an indefinite strike on Tuesday in a dispute over pay, their union spokesperson said.
“The strike action will go ahead as planned. It will be indefinite, beginning with those on the night shift today [Tuesday],” National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) spokesperson Lesiba Seshoka said.
“De Beers have invited NUM and representatives of the workers to a meeting at 2pm today to try to see if we can agree on a deal. We will attend that meeting but the strike will go ahead as planned and will only be called off if there is a deal.”
The unions have been holding out for an 11% increase while the company has only put an offer of 8% on the table.
Seshoka said that the mineworkers were still prepared to negotiate with their employers.
Workers belonging to NUM, the biggest mineworker union in the country, voted to strike from Tuesday after talks with De Beers reached an impasse.
“The company seeks to avoid disruption to operations as this will have a negative effect, both to the company and to employees,” De Beers spokesperson Tom Tweed said in a statement.
“In the event of a strike, contingency plans are in place to operate the mines. However, the company would prefer to settle this without disruption to its normal operations or to employees.”
The prospect of a strike at De Beers, which controls 40% of the rough diamond market, adds to the list of union unrest in South Africa, which last month witnessed the biggest public-sector strike since the end of apartheid.
De Beers is 45% owned by London-listed company Anglo American. The South African Oppenheimer family holds 40% while the state of Botswana owns the remaining 15%. — AFP