The two big unions striking for higher wages at Sibanye-Stillwater’s gold operation say they are in it for the long haul as the protracted industrial action drags on.
It remains to be seen who will blink first: Sibanye management or leaders of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), and the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu).
The unions said their members will continue to down tools to “shake up” Sibanye’s gold operations, which account for 7% of group profit, while the company has said it will continue implementing a lockout on striking workers until the two unions accept its revised wage offer.
Speaking to Business Day on Wednesday, NUM president Joseph Montisetse said the strike, which started a week ago, was continuing. “We are going to engage on protracted mass action to shake up Sibanye,” he said.
On Monday, Sibanye said it had received an “unconditional acceptance” of its final wage offer from Solidarity and the United Association of SA (Uasa), which was made to the coalition of unions, including NUM and Amcu on February 4. It said Uasa and Solidarity members would no longer be locked out of the workplace.
The revised wage offer will result in surface and underground workers getting a R700 pay rise and a R100 increase in the living-out allowance each year for three years, and a 5% pay increase for artisans, miners and officials over the course of the multiyear agreement.
The four unions had been negotiating with the company for nearly a year, demanding an increase of R1,000 a month for the lowest-paid employees, and 6% for miners, artisans and officials, which is above the 4.9% inflation rate the SA Reserve Bank has forecast for 2022. They are also demanding a R100 increase in the living-out allowance, which takes their wage demand to R1,100 each year for three years.
Montisetse said: “We are not bothered by the fact that Solidarity and Uasa have accepted the revised wage offer, because they represent mostly better-paid workers, such as miners, officials and artisans. Most of their members are white, we knew they couldn’t go on a strike.”
Sibanye has urged the unions to accept the revised wage offer, saying workers would gain nothing from a strike. Industrial action would only serve to jeopardise the sustainability of its gold operations and impact all stakeholders, particularly employees, the company said.
Maja Mphahlele, Africa regional co-ordinator of the World Federation of Trade Unions, an international federation of trade unions, said: “We want to urge Sibanye-Stillwater to respect the bargaining rules ... by reconvening the negotiations with the aim of finding an amicable solution.”
Mphahlele said failure by Sibanye to accede to “this noble request will leave us with no other alternative but to galvanise progressive forces to hold the company accountable”.
Update March 17 2022
This article has been updated to reflect that the 6% wage increase Amcu and NUM are demanding is for miners, artisans and officials.
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