The Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) has unveiled plans to embark on a secondary strike at Sibanye Stillwater‘s platinum operations around Rustenburg.
It will be in solidarity with striking Amcu members at Sibanye’s gold mine operation.
Workers affiliated to the Amcu downed tools in November last year. The Amcu strike at Sibanye Stillwater is in its ninth week.
The union says it will be encouraging its members in the platinum sector to join it on a secondary strike. Amcu members working at Sibanye’s gold operations in Kloof, Beatrix and Driefontein downed tools in November last year.
They want a minimum wage of R12 500 and an annual increase of R1000 for the next three years. However, Sibanye has agreed to a wage increase of R650 for the first year, R700 in the second year and R825 in the third.
South Africa’s largest gold producer extended the wage agreement it had reached with the National Union of Mineworkers, Uasa and Solidarity, in December last year. It also declared the strike unprotected after it declared that the three unions had become majority unions.
However, workers have rejected this agreement and remain adamant that they will continue striking until their demands are met.
“Amcu president Joseph Mathunjwa did not tell us to go on strike. We went on strike on our own accord because we want more money. We never got the money we wanted to get under the NUM. We want more money and we are not coming down from this mountain until we get it,” says striking worker, Mongezi Ncinci.
Workers say a basic wage of R12 500 will help them educate their children and secure a better life for them. Click below for more on the story:
