Mr. Raymond Mashilo Kgagudi Cellphone: 0749226361 Email: [email protected]
---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: <[email protected]> Date: 29 Aug 2012 20:51 Subject: GLC is mourning the dead Marikana miners To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> Dear readers**** You have certainly heard, read or seen reports on the violence which has flared up in and around the platinum mines in Rustenburg, in the North West province of South Africa.**** At least 46 people, most of them workers, have been killed in the past few days; our first thoughts go to them and their families. Unfortunately, it looks likely that more, among the 78 wounded and the many missing, will perish. In the mainstream media, this is reported as the outcome of an internecine war between unions. This is only part of the truth. Fierce union rivalry already raged in the North West platinum mines in the 1990s, claiming many casualties. However this is very different from applying massive police force and killing many striking miners. **** It is impossible to understand what is happening without bearing in mind that these mines are a prime locus of capital accumulation in the country. South Africa’s very financial sustainability is premised on its (fragile) dependence on portfolio inflows which finance its soaring current account deficit. The country’s ability to attract these speculative flows hinges on its mineral resources, of which platinum has become the most significant. Yet, the price of platinum has been dropping steadily recently, seriously denting the profits of mining companies – a development which probably has more to do with the recent violence than meets the eye. Ironically, the recent massacre has prompted a sudden increase in world prices for the commodity, probably out of fear that production at Lonmin mine (400 kg/day) coud be disturbed for a while.**** What is happening is not primarily a turf war over who organises workers; it is a conflict over the distribution of economic and political power. The illegal strike declared by the 3800 rock drillers at the Lonmin mine at Marikana on the 10th of August is the outcome of almost two decades of disappointment and growing distrust among the workforce. This is due to unfulfilled promises made by the mining companies to improve the wellbeing of the workers and the community; as well as to the failure of formally co-operative but substantially confrontational and exploitative labour relations (see Bench Marks report below). This conflict is waged by people who are working extremely hard, in horrendous conditions, and who live in disgraceful locations – even if what they produce is one of the world’s most valued mineral commodities. **** What is driving this ongoing violence between workers, unions and security forces, both private and public? And what has led to the recent escalation? We know many of you are expecting insights from us, but we are facing a dilemma: We want to react to these horrible events, which are undoubtedly very significant. However, we do not want to echo the improperly researched or informed views which are flourishing on the web and in the media. Right now, we are feeling immensely sad, and full of anger at the pictures of dead workers lying on the ground. **** Here is how we will try to solve our dilemma: Firstly, we are sharing below some of the analyses which we have found most useful in providing well-researched background. Secondly, we are seeking to bring together representatives of the two trade union factions – on the one hand, a trade unionist involved in organising a segment of disgruntled workers who have rejected the COSATU- (and, indirectly, ANC-) affiliated National Union of Mineworkers (NUM); and on the other hand a representative of COSATU. We hope to publish their discussion as a column in September. **** In Solidarity with the Marikana strikers, and in memory of those who died*** * Nicolas and Phumzile, GLC editors**** *Recommended readings: ***** - For following the events unfolding, several colleagues have found the SA Times to offer the most accurate reports - www.timeslive.co.za/ ** ** - The (faith-based) Bench Marks Foundation has just released a report on the platinum mining industry in general in the North West, with a section on Lonmin. The terrible living and working conditions are documented extensively: http://www.bench-marks.org.za/research/rustenburg_review_policy_gap_final_aug_2012.pdf **** - Two more articles below, one current and the other one explaining the background of the rise of AMCU**** >From the *Guardian*, by Justice Malala**** *What mining massacre says about South Africa* A woman runs in front of striking mine workers during a tense moment at the Lonmin mine near Rustenburg, South Africa, on Friday. The story of the London-listed Lonmin's Marikana mine shootings is that of a trade union that cosied up to big business; of an upstart and populist new union that exploited real frustration to establish itself; and of police failure. It is a story which exposes South Africa's structural weaknesses too. Poverty, inequality and unemployment lie at the heart of the shootings this week. The Lonmin story starts with the 360,000-member National Union of Mineworkers, formed in the 1980s to fight apartheid labour laws. Under the leadership of Cyril Ramaphosa - ironically now on the board of Lonmin – the union became the biggest affiliate to the Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu), a powerful ally of the ruling ANC. Power politics For more than a decade Cosatu has concentrated on socio-economic and political issues. Instead of organising on the shop floor it has harried the ANC government to adopt increasingly left-leaning policies. The NUM, one of the two biggest unions within Cosatu, has been at the forefront of these struggles. Over the past few years the NUM has been split by succession battles inside the ANC, with the current leadership campaigning for ANC President Jacob Zuma to win a second term. The union has paid a heavy price for this. At the Lonmin mines its membership has declined from 66% of workers to 49% and it has lost its organisational rights. Disgruntled and expelled union leaders had in the meantime started a new union, the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union, and were organising on the NUM's turf. The NUM's achilles heel was that its relationship with mine owners and the Chamber of Mines had become too close. Its secretary, Frans Baleni, is a more strident critic of the nationalisation of mines than many business leaders. The union has also allegedly accepted wage settlements that tied workers into years of meagre increases. Luring workers The AMCU dangled a fat piece of fruit in front of the workers' eyes: rock drillers (who are the core of this strike and do the hardest work underground) earning R 4,000 a month were promised R 12,500 a month. The union's support in the Lonmin mines shot up to 19% by last month, and it embarked on an illegal strike to force its pay demand. This week the strike turned violent. On the ground, armed workers are promising to "take a bullet with my fellow workers". The AMCU's leaders are preparing for war. The NUM has lost all credibility and is bleeding members. Its already well-paid secretary, Baleni, was awarded a salary increase of more than 40% last year. NUM leaders have refused to get out of police armoured vehicles to address workers. Last year one of them was struck with a brick and lost an eye. They have no cogent plan to end the strike. The police, too, have lost credibility. Although the indications are that they were shot at, a death count of 34 in three minutes suggests panic. A judicial inquiry is likely. Lonmin saw its chief executive hospitalised with a serious illness two days ago. It is leaderless, then, and has no coherent plan to end the impasse. On Friday, it kept a stony silence after days of hapless statements. The AMCU is also organising among poor workers and their shack settlement communities, which have become no-go zones for police. For these settlements, this is a strike against the state and the haves, not just a union matter. Joseph Mathunjwa, an AMCU leader, told workers yesterday: "We're going nowhere. If need be, we're prepared to die." **** Malala is a political analyst in Johannesburg**** ** ** >From Miningmx Mining Yearbook**** *The rise and rise of Amcu* IT HAS to count among any mine manager’s worst nightmares: striking employees who occupy the underground works of a huge coal property. This is exactly what happened in September 1999 at Douglas Colliery, one of the oldest mines of Ingwe Coal, which later became part of BHP Billiton Energy Coal (Becsa). The 3,000-strong workforce protested against the dismissal of one Joseph Mathunjwa, chair of local branch of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM). The strike was unprotected and lasted for two weeks, during which the mine’s underground section was occupied for 10 days. The dispute was only terminated once Mathunjwa got reinstated, but he then faced a second hurdle – a disciplinary hearing by the NUM for bringing the union into disrepute. These events were the birth pains of the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu), which is currently mopping up members from the platinum mines around Rustenburg and Brits. Archie Palane, at the time Deputy General Secretary of the NUM, was sent to investigate the charge against Mathunjwa, but found the local chair had done nothing wrong. Another official from Johannesburg was sent for the same reason, but he also found no reason to discipline Mathunjwa. However, Gwede Mantashe, then the union’s General Secretary, insisted that Mathunjwa appear before a disciplinary hearing chaired by Mantashe himself. Mathunjwa refused as he had previously clashed with Mantashe over the handling of money paid by employers to a job creation trust. Mathunjwa insisted that an independent person should chair the hearing, not Mantashe. “My membership of the NUM was subsequently terminated,” says Mathunjwa. “I informed the union that I am not a member anymore, although I retained by job as laboratory assistant at the mine.” Mathunjwa was, however, very popular among the workforce. Among other notable successes he forced the management of Douglas to implement a bonus system for underground workers. When a worker had died under mysterious circumstances, Mathunjwa forced management to not only deliver the body to the family in Mozambique, but also to accompany the body and explain in person the circumstances surrounding the death. "Mpumalanga is our strongest region, but I think North West is growing strongly."Says Mathunjwa: “When the NUM terminated my membership I told them I’m out, but that they should continue on their own and elect a new branch chairperson. “They immediately called as mass meeting. They were aware of my battles with NUM’s head office. At the meeting the workers decided no ways – an injury to one is an injury to all. And the whole workforce of about 3,000 resigned from the NUM.” The workers investigated the possibility of joining other unions, but the culture and philosophy didn’t appeal to them. Eventually, the workforce told Mathunjwa to create a new union. He got help from Jeffrey Mphahlele, a local teacher, to register a new union with the Department of Labour. They called it the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu). It was officially registered in 2001. Palane tried to convince Amcu to rejoin the NUM, but Mathunjwa refused. “I told Archie that if he becomes the General Secretary of the NUM, we will come back,” he said – something that failed to materialise when Frans Baleni won the contest to succeed Mantashe. Amcu gained recognition at Douglas, but in subsequent years it faced an endless struggle to the gain recognition in the face of tactics by seemingly suspicious employers who were colluding with established unions. BHP Billiton, for instance, created bargaining forum at company level with a threshold of 30% membership across the group before it recognised a union. Still, Amcu is currently the representative of workers at various mines in Mpumalanga, including coal, chrome and platinum mines, as well as coal mines in KwaZulu-Natal. It also has members at chrome and platinum mines in Limpopo – Two Rivers and Modikwa. The union is especially well represented amongst mining contractor companies, as these employers are usually not bounded by recognition agreements. For the same reason the workers in these establishments are often also more vulnerable. “Mpumalanga is our strongest region, but I think North West is growing strongly. The numbers [there] may soon overtake the membership in Mpumalanga,” Mathunjwa says. In the Northern Cape it is recruiting among contract workers at the iron ore and manganese mines around Kathu and Hotazel. “We don’t have any recognition agreements in place yet, but we will probably establish an office before year-end.” Meanwhile, analysts and even the NUM are baffled by die meteoric rise of Amcu at Impala Platinum Rustenburg; a 14-shaft mining complex with a workforce of 30,000, of which some 20,000 are unionised. Amcu was widely blamed for the devastating strike in February and March and the accompanying violence, but it is virtually impossible for a union with no recognition agreement or even organisational rights to gain access to a particular employer’s premise; especially in a closed, controlled environment like an underground, precious metals mining operation. It was recruiting members at the gates of some of the Implats shafts prior the strike, on invitation of some workers, only to be removed by security personnel. There was also ample evidence of discontent and even open revolt against the NUM among important pockets of the workforce, particularly the rock-drill operators (RDOs). These RDOs, some 4,300 of them, initiated a strike after they learnt about an 18% bonus increase that was given to selective workers in higher category jobs.**** CHANGE IN PROFILE **** These events may have ignited the strike, but the stoppage was probably the outcome of problems that had been simmering for some years. One such issue was an agreement signed between the NUM and Implats in 2007, which stipulated a 50% plus one member threshold for recognition – practically making Implats a closed shop where minority unions have no rights. That removed any competition and gave the NUM a monopoly in South Africa’s largest single mining complex. Secondly, and most importantly, a gradual change had taken place in the profile of the NUM membership over the last 15 years; one that nobody had taken notice of. The NUM was originally borne out of the lowest job categories of South African mineworkers, mainly from gold mines. More than 60% of its members were foreigners, mostly illiterate migrant labourers who were not interested in a career path. Nowadays that number has dropped to below 40%. On the other hand, an increasing portion of the NUM’s membership comes from what can be described as white-collar mining staff, who had previously been represented exclusively by Solidarity and Uasa. The local NUM structures in Rustenburg, like the branch office bearers and the shop stewards, are dominated by these skilled, higher level workers. They are literate, well spoken and wealthy compared to the general workers and machine operators underground. For instance, there are two NUM branches at Implats – North and South. And the chairpersons at both these branches were beneficiaries of the 18% bonus that sparked the strike. During wage negotiations in September 2011 Implats wanted to give rock-drill operators a higher increase than the rest of the workforce, but a committee of NUM shop stewards demanded the money be split among the whole workforce. Needless to say, there wasn’t a single rock-drill operator on the shop stewards’ committee. The NUM head office moved quickly after the strike to correct the situation, but it was way too late. It is circumstances like these that become an entry point for a rival union. It is a fairly well-established principle in industrial relations that the interests of different categories of workers are not aligned. They differ vastly, especially in societies where inequality is as extreme as in South Africa. Although Amcu are making major inroads on the NUM’s dominance in the platinum industry, it doesn’t mean the latter will roll over and disappear. NUM is a highly sophisticated and professional union with coherent leadership, and it is no coincidence that top ANC leaders regularly come from its ranks. Still, Implats’ neighbours are watching the situation closely and are trying to be pro- active. At Anglo American Platinum, for instance, rock-drill operators were recently given a R750 shift allowance. But Amcu is here to stay, at least for time being. It has a formidable opponent in the NUM, but Mathunjwa has proven elsewhere that he and his national office bearers are up for the task. **** ** ** ** ** This communication is intended for the addressee only. It is confidential. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately and destroy the original message. You may not copy or disseminate this communication without the permission of the University. 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