The balance in SA’s bloody strike at Sibanye-Stillwater’s mines tips slightly

The four-and-a-half month long strike at some of SA’s largest gold mines, in which nine people have been killed so far, is entering a crucial phase, with the delicate balance shifting ever-so-slightly in favour of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the target company Sibanye-Stillwater and away from the strikers and their union, the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu).

Yet, the balance remains tight, with strike numbers more or less holding. The strike constitutes Amcu’s thrust into the gold mining industry after having all but conquered the platinum industry. It also constitutes perhaps one of the last opportunities for the venerable NUM to regain its stature. It’s a crucial three-way stand-off.

As with almost all mining strikes in SA, the ruthlessness and bloodshed have been brutal. Apart from the nine people already dead, about 60 houses of NUM members and non-strikers have been burnt in the informal settlement of Blybank near Carletonville. Nobody’s accusing anybody, but everybody knows what’s happening here; this is all about muscle, power on the ground, and winning the battle once and for all. Consequently, many of the miners do what they always do during a strike; they flee.

Still, there are twists. Despite the long duration of the strike, strike numbers are holding, but crucially all three of the mines are still running too at a slower rate. That’s very different from the situation when Amcu was thrusting into the platinum industry. At Driefontein, an Amcu stronghold, attendance is only about 25%; but at Kloof, it’s around 70% and at Beatrix, it’s about 60%.

Looming behind the strike are two crucial developments: First, Sibanye-Stillwater’s takeover the Lonmin, which has Amcu deeply worried. Following the Marikana shootings in 2012, the union was able to win substantial benefits for members, but Lonmin’s subsequent financial collapse is in the back of everybody’s minds. Second is Sibanye-Stillwater application for job cuts. The company has signalled its intention to cut about 7,000 jobs, which constitutes about 4% of the total labour force.

So why is the balance tipping toward the NUM and Sibanye-Stillwater? The immediate cause is that when the strike started, the labour force was almost exactly balanced between the NUM and Amcu with each having about 43% membership.

One of the assumed intentions of the strike by Amcu was to solidify and galvanise its membership base, ousting the NUM once and for all. But it appears the balance has tipped the other way; not by much but by enough.

The company announced on Monday that an independent verification process has found the membership of the NUM, plus Solidarity and other unions, had breached the 50% level. That will allow the company to apply for the strike to be “unprotected” in the parlance of the Labour Relations Act.

Amcu is furious about this eventuality, claiming the process was not independent because it was designed by the company, and accusing the company of negotiating in bad faith. It certainly is convenient. “This is another example of the covert tactics of Sibanye to undermine the hard-earned constitutional right of Amcu members to protest for better conditions of employment,” the union said in a statement.

The finding also allows Sibanye-Stillwater to extend the wage agreement it made with NUM, and in fact initially with Amcu representatives, to all employees. This could a crucial tipping point, because it would mean Amcu members would have the option of staying on strike, or returning at higher pay, albeit not as high as the union is demanding.

The start of the strike, the company was offering a wage increase of R700 for the first two years and R850 for the last year of the three-year agreement. Amcu is demanding R1,000. This was agreed by NUM, which from the company’s point of view, neatly split the workforce more-or-less in half. But crucially, it also agreed it would not agree to more in negotiations with Amcu.

But since then, there has been some wiggling. The company has been paying the health and pension benefits of all workers; both those on strike and those not. Initially, it agreed to not charge members when they returned for these deductions.

Unsurprisingly, Amcu agreed to those stipulations. But, in case anyone might think the company cannot play hardball too, the company has subsequently withdrawn that dispensation, claiming Amcu is unnecessarily extending the strike. The company is also offering soft loans to get miners back on their feet and transport back to the mines.

Striking workers are not being paid, which is, of course, hurting members badly. Behind the scenes, there is also an election campaign, police presence is very high because the government is of course on tenterhooks that something might go very wrong.

Which it still very easily might. DM