[miningmx.com] — CENTRAL bargaining, now regarded as the answer to
the huge problems at South Africa’s platinum mines, would have been instituted years
ago if Archie Palane had become the general secretary of the National Union of
Mineworkers (NUM) in 2006.
On Friday, the former deputy secretary, in his first frank interview since he left NUM
in 2006, explained calmly and clearly how his efforts to bring stability and create a
playing field of common interest between employers and employees in the platinum
industry had been systematically nullified under the leadership of Frans Baleni, the
current general secretary.
Palane had been the driving force behind negotiations to set up a bargaining council
for the mining industry.
He had even spearheaded a strike held simultaneously at Anglo American Platinum
(Amplats) and Impala Platinum (Implats) in 2004 to consolidate service conditions in
such a way that wage negotiations could in future be held centrally between these two
platinum giants.
“After I left, they tried to redo everything at Impala,’ said Palane. “They also wanted
to amend the recognition agreement with Amplats and include in it a recognition
clause of 50% plus 1.
“This made the union officials uneasy – I think that was the time that union officials
realised that the union’s new leaders wanted to undo what had been achieved.’
The recognition agreement at Implats negotiated by Palane was amended in 2005 to
create a recognition threshold of 50% plus 1, which excluded all minority unions at
Implats.
“We could have excluded the minorities with thresholds of 30%, which are usually set
in recognition agreements, because we have enough members, but then NUM would
have had to perform, offering service to its members,’ Palane said.
The recognition threshold and the entrenched position that it would give NUM is today
regarded as the most important reason for the devastating six-week strike earlier this
year at Implats, which led to the loss of 200,000 ounces of platinum.
Two weeks ago, Implats stated that it would never again conclude such a recognition
agreement. Similar agreements entered into at De Beers, inter alia regarding profit
sharing and share deals, have been questioned by union officials.
Certain leaders within NUM responded by saying that they needed to be in reverse
gear to make progress. This later became a slogan used by officials to express
sarcasm about the approach to collective bargaining under Baleni’s leadership.
“I told union officials asking me for advice that they’d had training in negotiations –
and that they themselves should drive the process forward.
“In these types of situations, however, union officials become marginalised. They are
gagged and dare not mention my name,’ said Palane.
One of the incidents that has worried Palane the most was last year’s unprotected
strike by 9,000 workers at Lonmin’s Karee mine, which arose out of a leadership
battle within NUM’s local structures. NUM tried to end the strike but failed, after which
Baleni publicly advised Lonmin to fire the workers.
Lonmin did so and later rehired 7,000, and those workers today are all members of
Amcu, the competing union in the platinum industry.
“It’s absolutely shocking – completely unheard of that a union advises an employer to
fire workers.
“No matter what your differences or what they did, this should simply not happen. It
gives the impression that you just don’t care. How can you ever expect those workers
to trust you to represent them in any negotiations?
“I find this very strange. If you really have no solution, you can even ask Cosatu to
intervene between the parties and help,’ said Palane. “The events at Marikana mean
that the conditions that arose around service delivery demonstrations have now
moved over to the realm of labour relations. There is an honest demand for a wage of
R12,500 a month.
“Why must people arm themselves for a simple wage demand? Does this say that the
demand that we put on the table cannot be reached by any means other than
violence?
“A serious leadership gap has serious implications. It’s time for the leadership corps
to stand up and restore confidence. It they don’t do so, we will soon be living in a
lawless society.’
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Another issue that bothers Palane is the way in which NUM union leaders provide
members feedback. They give feedback on matters that they want workers to hear
but keep quiet about failures.
There is also a widening breach between union officials and ordinary members, partly
because union officials come from among the higher job categories.
Union officials are now expected to have qualifications such as a certain number of
years of service.
“The most unfortunate part of the community in which we live, however, means that
it’s not qualifications that make you a union leader – it’s your ability to articulate
issues and problems in the interest of members.
“That’s the basis on which people elect you to a leadership position. It’s the unions’
responsibility to develop that ability further,’ he said.
– Sake24
