Share & more
South Africa’s National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) has issued notice to the Chamber of Mines that its members will strike at three gold mining companies later this week, news reports said on Monday.
NUM spokesman George Lekorotsoana told Sapa the union had issued 48-hour notice of the mass action at Gold Fields, Harmony and Durban Roodepoort Deep. An estimated 50,000 of its members would go on strike from Wednesday’s night. “We will definitely strike, unless they (the Chamber) come to us with something to discuss,” he said.
The move follows unsuccessful attempts by the parties to reach agreement on wages and annual leave during negotiations on Friday. Chamber spokesman Frans Barker said he remained hopeful the strike at the mines could still be stopped, but the situation had not changed from last week. “There will be informal meetings and we will see if enough agreement can be found to call for formal negotiations. But, at this stage, the workers will go on strike,” he was quoted as saying.
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions