Impala plats strike
I am still amazed by what is happening at Impala Platinum. No really. Each and every day I read the COSATU Daily news monitor (good stuff or not, you should subscribe) and today there was nothing about Implats and workers potentially being laid off en masse. Niks. Luto. You would think that this sort of thing would enrage a labour union. Instead the two workers related stories were the objections to Stuart Murray’s comments around safety related stoppages and about corruption in NW farming communities. The rest of the letter talks about the storm in a tea cup (my view) around the DASO poster (or posters, not sure) and the SACP’s outrage over the financial crisis in Limpopo and the ruling party having handled it inadequately thus far, their view. But nothing about the strike at Implats.
Titled “Update on work stoppage at Impala Rustenburg” the announcement reads as follows: “Implats wishes to advise that the majority of the mining workforce at its Impala Rustenburg operation failed to report for duty this morning, Wednesday 1 February 2012. Incidents of intimidation have been reported across the property.” If you needed reminding, Rustenburg is their (Implats) biggest mine. In case you needed a reminder, this is how big it is to the company, this is the segmental analysis from their 2011 results:
See that? Huge. OK, back to the announcement from Implats: “As the strike has been declared illegal, the Company, in line with its ultimatum, will initiate dismissal procedures. The Company will begin a process of rehiring for those employees who wish to reapply for their positions.” Just like that. Dismissed. And because the mine workers are not from an affiliated movement, seems like COSATU don’t really care.
Downtrodden workers of the world stand together?
Perhaps only when they pay subs to the central union. I wanted to email Patrick Craven and ask him this question, but perhaps there is something that I am missing?
From Sasha Naryshkine of Vestact