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- The NUM wants an 8% increase in De Beers, while the company offers 1.5%.
- Exxaro Coal offers 5%, compared to the union’s demand of 7.5%.
- The threat of a strike occurs when mining companies are increasing production after closure.
Members of the National Union of Mining Workers (NUM) are ready to install tools at De Beers, Exxaro and Petra Diamonds after they failed to reach a salary agreement in the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA), the union announced on Friday.
The CCMA had approved the planned strike at the three companies, and the union said it was now finalizing logistics. The strike action that will take place while the country is still under alert level 1 of the Covid-19 lockdown.
“It’s going to be a great, great fight,” says William Mabapa, NUM’s chief negotiator at all three companies. The union has not yet announced the date of the strike.
“Food prices, fuel prices and headline inflation had skyrocketed. There is simply no room for peanut increases and for that, we are prepared for war,” he said.
At Anglo American-owned major diamond producer De Beers, the NUM wants an 8% raise for all its employees, but the company is only offering 1.5%. The union is also demanding a three-year payment of R30,000 as part of a share ownership plan for employees, which it says is due in December.
The threat of a strike comes as SA’s mining industry is beginning to ramp up production following a drop when mines were closed during SA’s full shutdown. Some companies placed axles under care and maintenance.
“De Beers can afford to pay for the salary increases and other benefits that NUM members are demanding after the company recently posted a 176% increase in rough diamond sales,” NUM said.
In July, the De Beers group said its rough diamond production fell 27% to 11.3 million carats, compared to 15.6 million carats the previous year, largely due to Covid crashes. -19 in southern Africa.
The union’s spokesman, Livhuwani Mammburu, said the talks failed last month when the country was still under level 2 blockade. Moving to Level 1 allows you to mobilize at least 500 workers.
The union also failed to reach an agreement with Exxaro Coal on a 7.5% wage increase. The company submitted a 5% offer.
Exxaro’s Director of Stakeholder Affairs Mzila Mthenjane said the company and the NUM were still in talks in an attempt to find an “amicable resolution to the Exxaro Coal 2020 salary negotiations process.”
“Our current salary offer is in line with current trends in the mining industry and the economic realities of the country.”
Debt-laden Petra Diamonds, which announced in June that it was seeking offers for the company or for parts of its assets, is offering a 4% pay increase, which NUM has declined. The London-listed mine operates the Cullinan mine on the outskirts of Pretoria.
Petra is also selling its exploration business in Botswana.
