[miningmx.com] — THE National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) said on
Friday the dispute that has brought Gold Fields’ KDC East mine to a standstill was
over a funeral cover benefit, a statement the company rejected by pointing to bigger
divisions within the labour union.
Gold Fields said on Friday its KDC East mine, close to Westonaria on the West Rand,
has been idle since Wednesday evening when 12,000 employees embarked on an
illegal strike.
“Based on informal feedback with employees, the strike appears to be related mainly
to disagreements within organised labour and related structures on the mine,
although we cannot confirm this,’ Gold Fields’ Head for Southern African Operations,
Peter Turner, said in a statement.
Company spokesperson Sven Lunsche said the dispute was between different
factions of the NUM, which represents 70% of KDC’s workforce. “We don’t know
what the issues are or how long it will take to have it resolved,’ Lunsche said,
adding that the standoff was limited to KDC East.
He said striking workers have “made it impossible’ for their non-striking peers to
enter the mine property.
NUM spokesperson Lesiba Seshoka, however, denied the strike was related to battles
raging within the union. He said the dispute was over the compulsory introduction of
a funeral cover scheme for the workers by Gold Fields.
According to him, the union requested Gold Fields to administer such a scheme, but
the miner’s decision to make it compulsory had raised the ire of employees who
didn’t want to take part in it.
“We believe it is now resolved, but Frans [Baleni, General Secretary of the NUM] has
gone there to make sure there were no other issues that may create a problem,’
said Seshoka.
Lunsche said the funeral policy scheme would’ve been introduced this month, but
was subsequently abandoned. “We’ve resolved that issue yesterday [Thursday], but
the strike is still ongoing,’ he said. “There’s bigger issues at play here.’ Trade union
Amcu, a major protagonist in the strike and massacre that brought Lonmin’s
Marikana mines to a standstill, said it was not involved in the dispute at KDC.
Gold Fields, meanwhile, has been granted an urgent interdict to bring the strike to
an end.
The KDC strike comes barely a week after Gold Fields CEO Nick Holland warned the
labour discontent at the country’s platinum mines would not be an isolated problem.
“We can’t be naive enough to think this problem won’t expand to an industry-wide
problem,’ he said.
Amcu said in June that in addition to canvassing for members on the platinum
mines, it was turning its attention to the country’s gold-mining sector.
