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Miners work underground near Carletonville, South Africa (file photo) THEMBA HADEBE/AP/Press Association Images
souh africa

South African miner fires 8,500 as strikes weaken

Major gold producers in South Africa are playing a high-stakes game of chicken with workers striking over wages.

SOUTH AFRICAN MINER Gold Fields today fired 8,500 workers who refused to halt an illegal strike as fellow mine owners succeeded in turning the screw on workers to end weeks of labour unrest.

As major gold producers’ high-stakes game of chicken with striking workers appeared to yield results, with AngloGold Ashanti miners trickling back to work, Gold Fields and Harmony Gold doubled down on similar tough strategies.

“All 8,500 people who were on strike did not come back. They did not return to work, so we have issued dismissal letters to all of them,” Gold Fields spokesman Sven Lunsche told AFP.

Workers have 24 hours to appeal their dismissal, he added.

28,000 recently downed tools

In the past seven weeks around 28,000 workers at three Gold Fields mines downed tools in Carletonville southwest of Johannesburg.

All the miners returned at the world-number-four producer’s Beatrix mine, which by Tuesday was the only one of the three operating at full capacity, said Lunsche.

Gold Fields had already fired 1,500 other workers last week after they ignored an ultimatum at the KDC West mine. Most of those appealed.

Around a third of 24,000 striking miners at world-number-three producer AngloGold Ashanti began to return to work ahead of a Wednesday noon deadline.

Company spokesman Steward Bailey said a large number of workers at two shafts, Kopanang and Great Noligwa, had clocked in.

“They have returned to work and those mines are operating again… (with) the vast majority of the workforce, probably about 90 percent,” Bailey said.

“The other three (mines) are still on strike in Carletonville… (and) 16,500 remain on strike as of last night (Monday),” he added.

Production impacted

AngloGold Ashanti said it was losing around 32,000 ounces of production a week because of the work stoppage.

In most strikes workers had demanded monthly salaries of 18,500 rand ($2,150, 1,650 euros) — sometimes double their salaries. Many also protested inhuman living conditions around the mines.

As stoppages at AngloGold Ashanti and Gold Fields apparently started winding down, nearby Harmony Gold “issued a final ultimatum today to the 5,400 striking workers at its Kusasalethu mine”, it said in a statement.

Mines resorted to sackings when striking workers refused to heed calls to take up their tools.

On Monday unions and mine operators struck a new deal to end the rash of strikes by gold miners in talks facilitated by the Chamber of Mines.

Parties will sign the deal on Thursday, but details have not been announced.

Wage dispute

Wages are determined on a collective basis between mining companies and unions in the world’s fourth gold-producing country. The new deal reportedly does not include noteworthy wage increases.

Tens of thousands of mining industry workers have downed tools over the past two months, predominantly in the north of the country, squeezing one of the nation’s most important economic sectors.

Violent stoppages started in the platinum sector in August, when over 50 people were killed in clashes. On August 16, police shot dead 34 people in a few minutes at the Lonmin platinum mine in Marikana northwest of Johannesburg.

Most strikes occurred outside traditional bargaining structures as workers rejected their traditional unions, thought to be too close to mine managers and the government.

The country’s powerful union federation Cosatu and its largest affiliate the National Union of Mineworkers are close allies of the ruling African National Congress.

Mining is the largest employer in South Africa and accounts for around a fifth of Africa’s largest economy.

- © AFP, 2012

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