Business Day
*LONMIN, miners sign deal to return to work * *Allan Seccombe, Business Day, Johannesburg, 6 September 2012*A peace accord has been signed between most participants in the strife at LONMIN's Marikana platinum mine, where production has been stopped for a month after an illegal strike by rock-drill operators started in August.
LONMIN and three unions --- the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), Solidarity and United Association of South Africa (UASA) --- all signed the accord on Wednesday night, but the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) and a workers' delegation did not sign, said Sdumo Dlamini, president of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU).
The signing of the peace accord would pave the way for negotiations on workers' demands for a R12,500 a month salary package, Mr Dlamini said on 702.
"We reached an agreement on the peace accord, to normalise the situation, to pave the way for the negotiations on the demand for R12,500 for the workers. We think it's a very important step forward, which would allow workers to go back to work," he said.
The workers' delegation had not signed on Wednesday night because of transport issues and they were in a hurry to leave, he said. He gave no reason for AMCU not signing. LONMIN, three unions sign 'flawed' peace accord
Both AMCU and the workers' delegation had participated in talks on the peace accord and drawing up the accord, and their "positions were not hostile", Mr Dlamini said. Both parties would take the signed accord to their members to get support for it, he said.
A source for LONMIN said: "Yes, the peace accord is flawed, but Lonmin knew it would be flawed, but it signed off on it so that negotiations can begin and it will invite anyone who is ready to negotiate to come sit around a table.
"LONMIN will invite non-signatories to those talks and see if something materialises. We are lurching forward," the source said.
LONMIN has been losing 15,000oz of platinum production each week since the wildcat strike started on August 10. The violence and intimidation that has marked the stoppage has claimed 44 lives.
***From: http://www.bdlive.co.za/business/mining/2012/09/06/lonmin-three-unions-sign-flawed-peace-accord*
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