Amcu presents revised wage offer
Amcu president Joseph Mathunjwa presented to loud applause a revised wage deal to platinum miners at a mass rally in Rustenburg on Monday.
The Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union leader read out the details of the deal for different salary bands at the three platinum producers, Lonmin, Impala Platinum and Anglo American Platinum, which included a R1000 per month salary increase for lower earners.
He told miners he wanted to get feedback from them on whether to accept the offer.
The deal would be back-dated to last July at Implats and Amplats but the back pay would end on January 22, when the strike started. This meant miners would not be paid for the months they were on strike.
At Lonmin the deal would be back-dated to last October until January 22.
"In 2012, we asked for R12,500 and people died... and left us with a challenge [to keep fighting]," he told miners at the Royal Bafokeng Sports Palace in Phokeng, near Rustenburg in the North West.
Before reading out the deal, Mathunjwa asked all miners in the stadium to stand and have a moment of silence for "fallen comrades".
He said the strike was one of the most peaceful strikes in South Africa.
Mathunjwa boasted about organising a strike that lasted five months, and mocked rival union National Union of Mineworkers for a three-day long strike in the gold sector.
