With wage negotiations between the companies and trade unions in the gold and coal sector under way, TJ STRYDOM spoke to Gideon du Plessis, general secretary of trade union Solidarity, about the road forward.
Q:Let's talk about coal first. How are things progressing?
A:The unions and the companies are making good progress. Employers have upped their offer from an increase of 5.6% to 6.5%. We now want to see a willingness from them to move closer to 8%, which is the levels of consumer inflation workers are experiencing.
(Solidarity initially demanded an increase of 10% and the majority National Union of Mineworkers 15%.)
Q:In the gold sector, with wage increase demands of between 10% and 150% from unions and the Chamber of Mines offering only 5%, how can we expect any sort of solution?
A:We [Solidarity, the NUM and the United Association of South Africa] have declared a dispute with the Chamber of Mines and have started with a process of facilitation handled by the CCMA.
[Tomorrow] the CCMA will sit with the unions to understand everyone's demands. Having the CCMA handle the process formalises negotiations and gives us a better chance to reach a deal.
Q:The chamber last week also declared a dispute with Amcu. Where is this union in the process?
A:Amcu seems to want to go it alone. Both it and the chamber painted themselves into a corner with their initial positions - the employers initially offering only 4% and the union demanding up to 150%. We have invited [Amcu] to join our proceedings, but so far it has declined to do so.
Q:When can we expect some sort of a deal?
A:We will likely be in negotiations for most of August.
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