Unions get tough with Anglo
2013-02-09 22:11
Johannesburg - The planned retrenchments by Anglo Platinum must stop
immediately, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the
National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) demanded on Saturday.
This was one of the demands put forward in a memorandum handed over to Anglo
Platinum and Impala Platinum when the two unions marched to the Rustenburg
municipal offices.
"Workers of this country continue to be marginalised and subjected to
substandard services and slave wages which continue to degrade their lives
while the politicians and business executives continue to benefit from the rich
economy this country poses," the memorandum read.
"At the same time we are threatened by further job losses through
retrenchments and dismissal in the mining sector."
Amplats announced in January it would retrench nearly 14 000 workers. Later
that month it delayed the retrenchments by two months for consultation.
The memorandum also demanded the end of "union bashing" at Impala
Platinum and the immediate re-opening of the NUM offices there.
"Companies such as Impala unilaterally derecognises unions and take
away their organisational rights while the agreements are still valid and at
the same time continues to give recognition and rights to a union which has
lesser members just because that union organises white employees."
Cosatu said it subscribes to the notion of freedom of association as
enshrined in the Constitution and condemned any form of intimidation which
intended to force workers to join union which they did not choose.
The memorandum also called for the appointment of a jointly agreed
independent body to conduct a membership verification exercise for both Impala
and Anglo Platinum.
The unions' other demands included that Impala's mining license be reviewed,
the department of labour investigate the status of all the unions and
deregister those which do not meet the requirements, and a better living wage
that would assist workers out of poverty.
"We demand a full detailed response within seven days."
- SAPA
