Johannesburg - Over 7000 members of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) at Northam Platinum are expected to march against 'witch hunting, victimisation, suspension and the charging of NUM members' at Northam Platinum, NUM said on Wednesday. The march is expected to take place at Northam Platinum Mine on Thursday at 1pm.
NUM said that being the majority trade union at Northam Platinum for many years it has maintained peaceful working relationships in the workplace. However it all changed since the emergence of the Association for Mining and Construction Union (Amcu). “Peace in the workplace has been disturbed and this is mainly as a result of collusion between the employer and Amcu, which has no recognition agreement at the workplace since they do not meet the minimum requirements for recognition in terms of applicable legislation,” NUM said in a statement.
NUM alleged that the Northam Platinum Mine had a 'cosy relationship' with Amcu in contravention of the Labour Relations Act in that, they gave Amcu access to the workplace when they did not meet the threshold.
NUM is demanding that Northam Platinum fire it's CEO Paul Dunne and the ER specialist with immediate effect. “We had said it before as that we did not and still does not support the presence of Paul Dunne at Northam, he has a history of dividing workers and unions.”
NUM said that Paul Dunne had triggered a tumultuous tide of turmoil at Impala Platinum, which resulted in the division of mine workers. “At Impala, he refused to conduct membership verification through an independent verifier and NUM members has resolved not to stomach this behaviour at Northam Platinum and we don't rule out the possibility of this divisive and evil character plunging the mining sector into another chaos.”
The mine and Amcu were not immediately available for comment.
African News Agency