Thursday, October 14, 2010

South African Workers: Strike Over, But Still No Deal; Miners Raise Safety Debate

Cosatu: Strike over, but still no deal

PRETORIA, SOUTH AFRICA Oct 13 2010 17:59

The Congress of South African Trade Unions on Wednesday announced that the public sector strike was over, even though no deal had been signed with the government.

At a press conference on Wednesday evening in Centurion, National Education, Health and Allied Workers' Union (Nehawu) president Michael Makwayiba said that seven of the eight Cosatu unions had accepted the government's offer of a 7,5% wage increase and an R800 housing allowance.

"Today I think is the final closure of the strike. We do think that at the end of the day we will reach the 50%," he said.

Shortly before the conference, Independent Labour Caucus (ILC) spokesperson Chris Klopper said that one of the ILC unions had accepted the offer, bringing the total to about 45% of workers accepting it.

He said that by next Tuesday he believed that another 36% of the ILC union leadership would have received a mandate from their members.

Protracted strike

Makwayiba said he did not believe the government would now withdraw its offer until Tuesday.

"We must appreciate the strike this year was a long protracted strike. We had to be sure that we reach every union," said Makwayiba.

The unions had asked for extra time to consider government's final offer, after which they would come back formally with a response.

The unions suspended their four week strike early in September to allow union members time to consider the government's offer.

Meanwhile government has welcomed the announcement.

"We welcome the announcement by the unions that they've officially called off the strike, which is good news for all South Africans," government spokesperson Themba Maseko told a media briefing after Cabinet's regular Wednesday meeting.

No break-down

He did not see any possibility of the state not implementing the 7,5 percent and R800 monthly housing allowance offer.

"Government's view is that the current phase needs to be concluded. You can't continue negotiating forever.

"We believe this current phase needs to be concluded so that we can begin to discuss all the other outstanding issues that were on the table.

"In contrast to what is out there in the public arena, we believe that relations between government and the unions have not totally broken down.

"There is still scope for sober discussions to take place between the state and the union negotiators."

As soon as the government got feedback from the unions, a decision would be made as to what would happen next.

"[But], we expect the offer will be implemented within a matter of days," he said. -- Sapa

Source: Mail & Guardian Online
Web Address: http://www.mg.co.za/article/2010-10-13-cosatu-strike-over-but-still-no-deal


NUM raises mine safety debate

JENNA ETHERIDGE | JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA
Oct 13 2010 13:05

The local mining sector should focus more on safety and less on meeting targets in light of the Chile mining accident, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) said on Wednesday.

"Sometimes our mining industry acts more like the taxi industry," NUM president Senzani Zokwana told the media in Johannesburg.

"These mines are focused on more trips to get more money, which compromises the safety of others."

Zokwana said mine owners should deal with providing a better basic wage for miners, rather than offering bonuses for productivity, which encouraged miners to take risks and potentially endanger lives.

"If you look at a company like AngloGold, my answer would be yes, they are not genuine in addressing their 'zero fatalities' policy as long as they offer bonuses as motivation," Zokwana said.

He said South African mining comanies could learn many lessons from the Chile rescue operation.

"We can take this home to us and say, do our mines meet the requirements of the law in terms of safety?"

Zokwana said the country's mining houses had the knowledge and skills to deal with deep mines, but what was lacking was the implementation of safety legislation.

"Without a strong inspectorate, workers would not be safe if owners alone were in charge of safety because they are focused on cost and profit," he said.

NUM national secretary for health and safety Eric Gcilitshana said more initiative was needed from private companies to assist with mine accidents, and said Murray & Roberts had provided the drills for the Chilean rescue operation.

"People are asking why this company hasn't helped with all our local accidents ... but it's because they didn't open up about their capacity to help ... until we saw it for ourselves on TV," Gcilitshana said.

Regarding the nationalisation of mines, Zokwana said a debate free of insults was needed to decide how a state mining company would operate and what the role of private companies would be.

"We are calling for the activation of the state mining company... we cannot have a situation like we did with Eskom where we ran out of coal because global prices were too high," he said.

Zokwana said there was a perception that calls for nationalisation were made by many "tenderpreneurs" who had run into trouble following the global financial crisis.

"Their calls are seen as a ploy to bail them out ... they think they can sell their mine to the state to earn some money," he said.

Regardless, a nationalisation debate was needed to examine how the interests of NUM's members could be defended, particularly concerning their pensions, he said. - Sapa

Source: Mail & Guardian Online
Web Address: http://www.mg.co.za/article/2010-10-13-num-takes-aim-at-sa-mine-safety

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