South Africa’s Coal Unions Declare a Dispute
NUM, Solidarity and UASA declared a
dispute with the Chamber of Mines on
the third round of coal mining wage
negotiations held at the Chamber of
Mines offices in Johannesburg during
mid-July. Eric Nwedo, the chamber’s
negotiator for coal, indicated that the
Unions’ demands, put together, still
have significant cost implications for
the companies. “We have made significant
offers to address the total package
of demands,” Nwedo said. “However,
there were several other demands that
the industry was unable to meet due to
the cost implications, including higher
contributions to retirement funds,
funeral cover, service increment, roll-up
of job categories, etc. In spite of this,
we made a revised wage offer of 7.25%
for all employees. We remain committed
to finding solutions to these issues
together with the Unions and hope to
make progress as quickly as possible.”
All parties were awaiting the appointment
of a CCMA mediator to assist in
finding agreement.