Lonmin and Amcu go head to head

Lonmin CEO Ben Magara (Left) addresses AMCU members while their leader Joseph Mathunjwa (right) listens during the unions march to the Offices of Lonmin in Melrose Arch near Johannesburg. 030414 Picture: Boxer Ngwenya

Lonmin CEO Ben Magara (Left) addresses AMCU members while their leader Joseph Mathunjwa (right) listens during the unions march to the Offices of Lonmin in Melrose Arch near Johannesburg. 030414 Picture: Boxer Ngwenya

Published Apr 4, 2014

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Johannesburg - Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) president Joseph Mathunjwa and Lonmin chief executive Ben Magara came face to face when they shared a podium to address about 5 000 union members of staff outside the company’s headquarters in Melrose Arch, Johannesburg, yesterday.

Magara told Amcu members that the world had been watching while employers and employees in the platinum belt destroyed each other.

He was booed after he said Amcu’s demand for a R12 500 basic wage for underground employees – the reason for the strike – was unaffordable.

Mathunjwa and Magara shook hands on the podium before the union boss handed over a seven-page memorandum.

“We ask you to reflect on the realities of the industry. If Lonmin is not there tomorrow Amcu will not have members,” Magara said.

“The realities of the industry are such that your demand is unacceptable. The world is watching us taking each other into poverty.”

Magara and some members of the company’s executive, including Mark Munroe, the vice-president for mining, and Abey Kgotle, the executive vice-president of human resources, stood behind a line of police officers while they waited for Mathunjwa to address the Amcu members.

Magara smiled most of the time despite Mathunjwa’s criticism of his R12 million annual salary, and of the firm for enriching shareholders.

Earlier in the day, Magara told journalists that supply disruptions had cost the platinum industry R11 billion in revenue, and 0.42 percent of the country’s annual gross domestic product (GDP).

Employees were losing 2 percent of their annual salary every week of the strike. Their losses now totalled R5bn or 20 percent of annual pay.

About 70 000 Amcu members have been on strike since January 23 at Lonmin, Impala Platinum and Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) .

Employers previously tabled an offer of an increase of between 7.5 percent and 9.5 percent and both sides have hardened their position. Mathunjwa said the strike would continue until the minimum wage demand was met over four years.

“I will never come to negotiate for 9.5 percent with Lonmin. Don’t sow divisions among members, I plead with you, or the consequences will be dire,” he said.

He said if the government was sympathetic to the plight of employees, half of the company’s taxes should be given to the workers.

Mathunjwa also warned Lonmin not to close shafts.

“You close one of your shafts – there will be no shaft that operates. I forewarn you Anglo, you close one shaft – Lonmin will never return to work. There will be a peaceful solidarity strike.

“Impala – you close one mine and we will have a mass solidarity. That means all platinum mines will be back to square one.”

As he spoke, the crowd chanted: “Close, close.”

Amplats warned previously it would consider closing its Rustenburg shafts, which would make no profits this year because of the downing of tools.

Mathunjwa gave Magara and Lonmin until Wednesday to respond to the memorandum. Mathunjwa accused Magara of offering Amcu members a 15 percent wage hike to end the strike in the background instead of at the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration talks.

“Magara talks about giving employees a 15 percent increase in toilets and taverns. This gives our members R800 extra a month, of which R650 goes to buying bread and R100 to tax. Is this what you have been fighting for for the past ten weeks?”

Amcu members, who were bussed in from Rustenburg, sat on Melrose Arch Boulevard under umbrellas while they listened to Mathunjwa for almost two hours. He announced that a trust fund would be launched to help mineworkers meet their families’ needs.

Amcu’s national treasurer, Jimmy Gama, and general secretary Joseph Mphahlele were with Mathunjwa on the podium, who said the key to resolving the dispute was to reach wage settlements with individual companies.

Striking a wage deal with individual companies would weaken the united front presented by the platinum majors. - With additional reporting by Sapa

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