[miningmx.com] – INCIDENTS at Impala Platinum’s Rustenburg mine on
Thursday (May 17), in which members of rival unions clashed, are a reminder that the
labour relations conditions that led to the six week strike earlier this year at the mine
should be seen as an ongoing risk to production.
Johan Theron, human resources manager for Impala, said the incidents were episodic
in nature, but added that the Associated Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu),
which is challenging The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), is claiming it has
some 10,000 employees of Rustenburg mine in its ranks. That’s about 25% of the total
mine labour complement.
A study is underway to verify the results which Theron said would take several weeks
to complete. If applications support the claims, Amcu will be a major threat to the
NUM which is facing leadership problems of its own.
The elective conference for the NUM, planned for June, is normally unchallenged. This
time around, however, the NUM general-secretary, Frans Baleni, is facing strong
opposition from his deputy Oupa Komane.
“Whatever the outcome, the leadership tussle will change the NUM making it more
aggressive,” said Theron. Regardless of Amcu’s successes, it means labour relations
may become yet more difficult to handle for Impala.
Returning to Amcu, Theron believes the union has made a good job of discrediting
regional ANC leadership such that its representatives are finding it increasingly
difficult to get into the hostels where the groundswell of membership is won and lost.
Lest we forget, union membership is a business within a business at a mine. At a
mine as large as Rustenburg, containing 40,000 employees, the R100 per member is a
revenue worth chasing.
“There’s no doubt the NUM is losing the war at ground level owing to intimidation and
violence,” says Theron who adds that Impala’s best strategy is to somehow broker
meetings between its top management and leaders of the unions. That process is
underway, but in the meantime, Impala has to think seriously about the prospect of
welcoming in Amcu as the majority union one day.
That process is fraught, owing to labour legislation. Legally, Amcu has to win 50% of
employee allegiance before it can be granted organizational rights on the mine. Even
before that, there’s a process including allowing the NUM three months to retrieve its
membership, before Amcu can be admitted as the top union.
“It could be a very frustrating process of seven or eight months before Amcu gets to
the point of being recognized,” said Theron who hastens to add that that is nowhere
near the current situation at Impala.
He also doesn’t think a prolonged strike is on the cards again since the memory of the
last one is still fresh. Work stoppages could happen, however; and the safety of
miners cannot be 100% guaranteed in such a stoppage.
So while it doesn’t pay to get ahead of oneself, it does need recognizing that labour
conditions at Rustenburg is a fast evolving situation at a time when margins are
becoming tighter for the country’s platinum producers.
