South African court blocks AMCU's plans for industry-wide strike
JOHANNESBURG – The labour court has rejected a request by platinum and gold sector union, the Association of Mineworkers and Construction (AMCU), to hold an industry-wide strike, Anglogold Ashanti, Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) and Lonmin said on Friday.
AMCU has been on strike at Sibanye-Stillwater's gold operations since mid-November in a pay dispute. It wanted to extend the strike to at least 11 other mining firms including Anglo American's gold and platinum operations, Harmony Gold and Lonmin.
"We welcome the decision of the court to grant an interdict against the secondary strike action called by AMCU. We maintain that a secondary strike by AMCU would not be in the best interests of our employees or the industry," Amplats CE Chris Griffith said.
In a statement, Lonmin confirmed the judgement.
The Johannesburg Labour Court was not immediately available for comment, and AMCU spokesperson Manzini Zungu did not respond to requests from Reuters to confirm the ruling.
In February, the labour court ordered AMCU to suspend its plans for an industry-wide sympathy strike following an application by producers.
Sibanye-Stillwater said last month it could cut nearly 6 000 jobs at its gold mining operations in a potential restructuring plan as above-inflation cost increases to labour and electricity gnawed at its margins.
Job cuts are politically sensitive in Africa's most industrialised economy, where the unemployment rate is more than 27%.
Data on Thursday showed gold production contracted for the fifteenth month in a row, shrinking by 22.5% in January, while platinum production was up 8.8% in the same period.
Comments
Press Office
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation