The strike in South Africa’s gold mining sector is now in its second week, with no deal reached between the mining corporation Sibanye Stillwater and two major labor organizations.
Around 30,000 miners from the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) went on strike last week when Sibanye refused to give them a three-year pay increase of 1,000 rand (around 66 dollars). For those three years, the corporation gave 700 rand for each year.
Since the industrial action was launched, parties have been unable to locate one other, according to NUM President Joseph Montisetse. He said that owing to the commodities boom, Sibanye generated a profit of 28 billion rand in 2020/2021, but that it was refusing to satisfy their fair salary requests. Other miners in the industry who made less money than Sibanye had agreed to their wage requests.
Montisetse accused Sibanye of bargaining in bad faith, alleging that CEO Neal Froneman told reps not to “move away from their first offer.”
Two additional minority-represented unions have now accepted Sibanye’s amended pay offer, according to Sibanye.
“We are hopeful that both the AMCU and the NUM will soon follow suit to avoid further strike-related consequences for employees and other stakeholders,” Froneman said.
In 2019, a five-month strike in the gold sector occurred.