Union power play must not stymie gold-sector pay deal

Wage talks in the gold-mining sector this week between the Chamber of Mines and unions could not be more important, both for the industry and the broader economy. Although violence has been notably absent in the gold sector, there are some parallels with events on the platinum belt more than 18 months ago, when negotiations broke down, leading to a crippling five-month strike that shaved billions of rands from our GDP.