South Africa's embattled platinum sector faced the prospect of another tidal wave of strike action Friday as angry unionists issued an end of month deadline to meet wage demands. The sector's main union AMCU told AFP that months of fraught negotiations with top producers Anglo American Platinum, Impala and Lonmin, must conclude soon.
"We can't negotiate forever," AMCU treasurer general Jimmy Gama said. "By this month, end of November, we should finish everything." "If things don't go the way (workers) want, obviously there will be a strike," he said. AMCU is demanding a minimum wage of 12,500 rand ($1,229) for mine workers, the same rallying call that lead to strikes and deadly clashes with police last year.
Gama dismissed suggestions of a sector-wide walk-out. "It will be on a company-by-company basis," he said. But with disputes simmering at almost all major producers, that distinction may be academic. South Africa accounts for around 80 percent of the world's newly mined platinum - a grayish white mineral used in catalytic converters and jewellery.
AMCU has already secured a permit to strike at Implats after negotiations reached an impasse, but is holding off declaring it for now. At Lonmin, where police gunned down 34 striking miners in August last year, "we are in a dispute situation," said Gama. A meeting with government mediators is scheduled for November 13. Lonmin's spokeswoman Sue Vey said talks were still ongoing. "We are busy with our negotiation and nothing has come to a final conclusion." The firm awarded miners a roughly 20 percent increase in the wake of last year's Marikana bloodbath. At Anglo American Platinum, which has already seen a series of strikes over plans to cut more than three thousand jobs, negotiations have also been referred to the state labour arbitrator. Meanwhile AMCU's rival, the National Union of Mineworkers said some 7,000 workers will take part in a strike starting Sunday at the world's fifth largest platinum mine Northam after talks collapsed.
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