Amplats sales talk worries Amcu

The Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union said it would meet Anglo American Platinum's CEO yesterday to discuss the sale of the company's Rustenburg assets.

The union led a record five-month wage strike at the Rustenburg mine last year.

Amplats, the world's biggest producer of platinum, has said it plans to focus on its more mechanised mines and sell its labour-intensive units, including the Rustenburg and Union operations.

Last year's strike severely undermined their viability.

"I will be meeting the CEO this afternoon because we are worried," Joseph Mathunjwa, president of Amcu, told reporters at a briefing.

"They are very quiet and we have made our position clear. We need to know who wants to buy those assets."

The Amplats mines' profitability were dealt a blow when unions won pay increases of up to 20% after the prolonged strike.

The work stoppage also affected production at Amplats' rivals, Impala Platinum and Lonmin.

"Workers cannot be treated as pieces of equipment ... workers must have a say in these assets," Mathunjwa said.

Amcu gained popularity after the platinum-belt strike and snatched members from the once unrivalled National Union of Mineworkers, sparking a wave of violence in a bloody turf war.

The union has also expanded into the gold and coal sectors, in which two-year wage agreements will expire by the end of June.

Wage talks are expected to be bruising, with NUM, which represents 57% of workers in the gold sector, saying that it might demand that wages be doubled.

Gold companies are having to contend with thinning returns, low prices and high operating costs.

Mathunjwa said Amcu would present its members' wage demands in the middle of next month.

"I don't expect anything good [from the negotiations] because workers are being treated as slaves ... it's a slave and master [relationship], so we have to cut that chain."