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Honeymoon may be over for AMCU boss Chris Barron, Sunday Times Business Times, Johannesburg, 26 January 2014 Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) boss Joseph Mathunjwa was interviewed as members began their strike on the platinum mines this week. It was a brief and slightly chilling experience. A belligerent Mr Mathunjwa made it clear he was not prepared to answer questions about the economic consequences of the strike, his leadership, how many members actually want to strike or the self-interest involved in making extraordinary promises he has no hope of fulfilling but which have swelled membership numbers, and, substantially, AMCU's bank balance thanks to the subscriptions they pay to Mr Mathunjwa. All such questions were "nonsensical", he said, and he was not going to dignify them with a response. The honeymoon period he appeared to enjoy with the media when AMCU achieved national prominence almost overnight after a six-week wildcat strike at Implats in 2011 seems to be over. Back then and even after the Marikana tragedy, which many blamed at least partly on AMCU, Mr Mathunjwa managed to stay reasonably calm and polite during interviews as he told the media that AMCU would be everything that the National Union of Mineworkers was not. It would have no political agenda, no cosy relationship with the mining companies, no fat-cat salaries and luxury limousines that created a chasm between the leadership and their members. But as doubt about his leadership, internal tension and allegations of corruption have mounted he has become increasingly belligerent. Under his carefully constructed veneer of civility disturbing signs of intolerance have appeared. Last Sunday, he said at a mass meeting of members at Rustenburg stadium that those criticising and making allegations against the leadership must be identified and dealt with. But back to our abortive interview. "I am so disappointed with the Sunday Times," he said. Before answering any questions he needed to "check with your editors" about a story that appeared last week. "The Sunday Times still has to sort out our position with their writer before I talk to you." What was his real motivation for this week's strike action? "There is no motivation from me. Workers are motivated by the poverty they experience every day. They don't need my motivation. They have their own motivation." They say many of them don't want to strike? "That is rubbish." Shop stewards have said that the views of AMCU members about going on strike were not properly canvassed? "I don't want to be rude to you because you are still pushing the very same propaganda. You want me to glorify, or dignify, your nonsensical questions. It is very much unprofessional of you." When asked if he actually wanted to bring the industry to its knees, he terminated the "interview" with the press of a button. Close observers of Mr Mathunjwa still don't know what to make of him. He's fairly religious, says "God bless you" if you don't annoy him, but can be insulting if you do. He does not trust the other side an inch and his body language makes this plain from the moment he walks into a negotiating room. This makes it difficult to negotiate with him because in essence negotiations are built on trust and give-and-take. His method of negotiating is to start with an outrageous demand and refuse to budge. The jury is still out on his intelligence and ability to think strategically. But it is his emotional intelligence that bothers those negotiating with him, the extent to which he is driven by his hatred of the NUM. This goes back to 1998 when the then general secretary Gwede Mantashe worked him out of the NUM. Some think he has become fixated on annihilating the NUM, and suspect that his emotions take precedence over strategic thinking, which is why he makes decisions that in the long term are not in the interests even of his own members. He gives a sense that he is driving a personal agenda. Is he a capitalist? A socialist? A socialist with a capitalist heart? Nobody really knows. He has been very coy about his political allegiances, at great pains to deny affiliation to any political party. He believes that workers are abused, and that mine bosses are evil, fat-cat capitalists determined to screw them every which way they can. He presents himself, by contrast, as someone entirely uninterested in self-enrichment, whose only concern is to protect the interests of the workers because the NUM was not doing so. Then on Sunday he arrives to address his poverty-stricken, abused members in Rustenburg in a brand-new Lexus with three white bodyguards. And one wonders. Mr Mathunjwa does not delegate in any meaningful sense of the word, either because he cannot or does not want to. Last year, he cut his chief negotiator Jeff Mphahlele, AMCU's likeable general secretary, off at the knees in front of negotiators, shop stewards and gold companies when after four months of negotiations, he said he wanted to caucus members on whether to sign a pay agreement with the Chamber of Mines. Mr Mathunjwa, who had nothing to do with the negotiations, turned to Mr Mphahlele and said that would not be necessary. Then he went on an emotional rampage, and AMCU never signed the agreement that the other unions signed. Although his members have benefited from it, Mr Mathunjwa used this to justify calling a strike in the gold sector this week. The chamber got a temporary interdict preventing it. This is a clear example of the lack of democracy his critics complain about. The buck stops with Mr Mathunjwa. Any delegation is superficial. In the end, only he makes the decisions. And it is hard to see how they've benefited the members whose subscriptions add R10m a year to AMCU's coffers. What he or AMCU does with the money is anyone's guess. One-and-a-half years after Marikana, his head office is still in Witbank, but the bulk of his members are in Rustenburg. Why he hasn't moved or at least opened an office in Rustenburg to be more accessible to his members, is another unanswered question. Has he just not thought about it or doesn't he care? Is there some deep strategic reason or is it just bad planning or no planning at all? He loves addressing the masses, and is a brilliant rabble rouser. But when he takes part in negotiations his ignorance about gold mining is embarrassingly exposed. Which is why he seldom does. During the wage negotiations on gold he didn't attend a single meeting. He left it to Mr Mphahlele, who is polite and open to proposals, but only marginally more knowledgeable than his boss. In the negotiations last year, shop stewards would seek his permission to ask questions because he was incapable of asking them himself. Negotiators for the gold companies found that "terribly scary". Mr Mathunjwa does not respond well when his arguments are cut to pieces. In the one meeting he attended during last year's gold negotiations he stopped Chamber of Mines' chief negotiator Elize Strydom in mid-sentence, told her she made him sick and left the table. Whoever is benefiting from his leadership of AMCU, it is not his members on the platinum mines. Since Marikana, nothing much has changed for them. They've received no increases. Wage negotiations have deadlocked because he has refused to budge from his R12,500 demand for entry-level workers who presently get less than half that. Current offers from the different platinum companies are from 8% to 8.5% a year for two years. Had he accepted this, his members would have been a lot closer to getting the R12,500 he promised them but has done so little to deliver. From: http://www.bdlive.co.za/national/labour/2014/01/26/honeymoon-may-be-over-for -AMCU-boss -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. 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