Northam strike continues

The National Union of Mineworkers is to march on the Johannesburg head office of Northam Platinum after pay talks failed, the union said on Monday.

 

"We have not heard anything from management since the last meeting," NUM chief negotiator at the company's Zondereinde mine in Limpopo, Ecliff Tantsi, said in a statement.

 

"The NUM is still open for further negotiations with the company and we will be on stand by 24 hours."

 

The march was expected to start at Hyndhan Park in Dunkeld West, Johannesburg, around 10am on Tuesday.

 

Mine spokeswoman Marion Brower said the union advised the company of the march last week.

 

"The company stands by its wage offer because it believes it's a fair offer," she said.

 

"We hope there will be some sort of engagement with the union and some sort of acknowledgement to the economic circumstances of the company. 

 

We hope to reach an agreement that will be to the benefit of all stakeholders."

 

On Wednesday, Northam Platinum said it had lost about R200 million so far because of the strike at Zondereinde.

 

NUM members went on strike at the mine, near Amandelbult, on November 3. 

 

They wanted an increase of R2100 for core workers, such as rock drill operators, and R2000 for non-core workers.

 

The union rejected the company's revised wage offer of a 7.5 percent increase for non-core category two to eight employees, and 8.5 percent for core employees in the same categories.

 

In categories nine and 10, the company revised its offer to seven percent for non-core workers, and 7.5 percent for core workers, and the living-out allowance to seven percent. The company was proposing a two-year wage agreement.

 

Meanwhile, the NUM expressed disappointment on Monday at the open letter by Northam Platinum's CEO Glyn Lewis and general manager Danny Gonsalves to NUM general secretary Frans Baleni which was published in the City Press on Sunday.

 

"Unfortunately, the open letter in the City Press and Business Day is an expensive public posture intended to mislead the South African public while making the CEO famous for what reason we are yet to know," the NUM said in a statement.

 

The union had gone on a legal strike because wanted a peaceful resolution to the dispute, it said.

 

In its open letter, the company expressed concern that the NUM had not considered the state of the platinum mining industry and the effect of its strike on Northam's employees.

 

It said the industry was currently in a "tenuous financial position", that platinum prices had decreased and that many platinum mines in South Africa were making losses or breaking even.

 

-Sapa