South Africa’s unions set to strike

The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), the largest mining union in South Africa, and the country’s Chamber of Mines, which represents most big mining companies, are burning the midnight oil in hopes of avoiding a devastating strike in the country’s gold and coal mines.

NUM threatened strike action after negotiations reached a stalemate over wages, medical benefits and holidays. The union is seeking an 8.5% wage increase, while the companies are reported to have offered about 7%. In a statement, the Chamber described its offer as “fair and defensible.”

The negotiations affect almost 160,000 miners working for such companies as Gold Fields and AngloGold. A strike vote by NUM is expected later this week.

Meanwhile, NUM is going ahead with a strike against Eskom, South Africa’s largest power provider, even after the company decided to unilaterally impose its 9% wage offer on workers.

Eskom’s move is the second unilateral action since 1999, when the public service and administration department imposed its offer on public service unions, leading to the largest strike since 1994.

The union believes it will cripple the utility company when its more than 30,000 members walk off the job. Eskom says a strike would not affect essential services. The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) and two other unions said they would join the strike at Eskom.