adminJOHANNESBURG. — A strike called by South Africa’s National Union of Mineworkers at Northam Platinum Ltd over wages continued into a second day as the company said it has proposed a meeting between the sides tomorrow. “There has been no invitation from the company, but we’ll be ready to see them” for talks, Ecliff Tantsi, the union’s negotiator at Northam, said by phone yesterday. The company’s management resolved, for safety purposes, not to allow production-related employees underground yesterday, Northam said in an e-mailed statement.
Northam’s Zondereinde division was served with a strike notice after the company’s latest wage offer of 7 percent to 8 percent was rejected, the metals producer said. The NUM, which has more than 7 000 members at the company, demands an average increase of 61 percent, it said.
Northam “has moved on its offer twice, while the NUM has made no move at all,” Memory Johnstone, a spokeswoman for the company, said November 1 in an e-mail.
Output at the Zondereinde mine is estimated at 300 000 ounces a year, the company said September 30 in its annual report.
Tantsi said the strike started with the night shift and subsequent morning shift.
The Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union has also failed to reach an agreement over wages with Lonmin Plc, Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd. and Anglo American Platinum Ltd, the world’s three largest platinum producers. It is the biggest labour group at those companies. — Bloomberg.
Online Reporter