At presstime, a national strike at South Africa’s gold mines had been postponed until late July. However, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) said the labour action would go ahead at certain coal operations.
The union has demanded a R2,000 minimum salary for the lowest-paid workers. Gold companies responded by improving their offer, provided the proposal be implemented over two years. Under the deal, other employees above the minimum pay scale would get a wage increase of between 7.5% and 8.5% for both years.
A strike would threaten South Africa’s marginal mines and smaller operations. The negotiations affect almost 160,000 miners working for such companies as Gold Fields and AngloGold.
Meanwhile, the union is going ahead with a strike against Eskom, South Africa’s largest power provider, after the company decided unilaterally to impose a 9% wage offer. Eskom’s action recalls a similar unilateral action in 1999, when the public service and administration department imposed its offer on public service unions, leading to the largest strike since 1994.
The union hopes to cripple the utility company by ordering its more than 30,000 members to walk off the job. Eskom says a strike would not affect essential services.
The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa and two other unions said they would join the strike at Eskom.
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