Shake-up in mine trade union dealings

Tensions give rise to re-think of ‘winner takes all’ principle.

TENSIONS in mining trade unions over the past 18 months‚ in particular the rapid growth of the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu)‚ is prompting a rethink of the “winner takes all” bargaining principle enshrined in the Labour Relations Act.

Traditionally the biggest union in mining was the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and what employers agreed on with the NUM applied to smaller unions as well.

However‚ now that the NUM has lost majority status at some mines‚ it is less happy with that principle.

Labour expert Tony Healy of Tony Healy & Associates says this could turn out to be the most significant feature of labour developments last year.

Already some of the mining houses are including numerically significant unions in the bargaining process‚ even though they are not the majority union.

The growth of Amcu‚ and anger arising from the events at Marikana near Rustenburg‚ where more than 40 people died in labour unrest in August 2012‚ made it seem more likely that the two-year wage agreement would be more difficult to negotiate.

But that was not the case‚ although parts of the platinum sector were still battling to reach agreement by last month.

Healy says there are two likely reasons why mining unions were less militant than feared. The first is that labour leaders and members understood the parlous state of the mining industry‚ and that if they did not enter into a more co-operative relationship with mining firms‚ more jobs would be lost.

Second is that mining companies adopted a tougher line last year‚ after the labour crisis in Marikana in 2012 led unions to believe they could strike illegally and get away with it.

Wage negotiations with trade unions handled by the Chamber of Mines on behalf of gold and coal employers took several months to finalise.

However‚ by September last year‚ agreements had been reached. The final wage settlements were between one and two percentage points above inflation‚ considerably lower than initial union demands.

Apart from the wage increases‚ chamber members and unions agreed to appoint an expert to investigate and report on organisational design in the gold mining industry‚ and to implement some of the recommendations of the Sindisa Project report. The project was started in 2011 with a task team drawn from companies and labour to look at ways to use gold mining assets more effectively.

Pressure on platinum companies has persisted throughout the year.

By December‚ Northam Platinum’s Zondereinde mine in Limpopo remained in the throes of a bitter standoff with NUM over its wage offer.

Northam was offering an 8 to 9% wage increase‚ similar to other recent mining wage settlements‚ but the NUM members were holding out for an effective increase of 16%. Some platinum mines have agreed on reasonable wage increases.

The long-standing practice is that the platinum mines negotiate with trade unions individually whereas most of the gold and coal companies negotiate two-year wage deals through the Chamber of Mines. Collective bargaining has been mooted for platinum companies too‚ but Amcu has opposed it. — BDlive