The trigger for the bitter rivalry between miners who belong to the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) and Gold One Modder East mine in Springs, Gauteng, is a R700 deduction for health insurance they have allegedly not consented to.
More than 500 workers were held against their will underground by Amcu members after they were due to change shifts on Sunday, the mine said.
In the latest development, TimesLIVE reported that some miners have since begun emerging from underground. They were seen emerging from the shaft in full personal protective equipment at around 7am on Wednesday.
The members of Amcu want their union to be recognised as an alternative even though the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) has bargaining power and operates on a closed-shop agreement — meaning all employees contractually belong to the majority union — at the mine.
In a document seen by TimesLIVE Premium, miner *Sipho Mlotshwa (not his real name) showed his payslip which reflected that R700 had been taken for medical aid known as Affinity Health. But a statement from the medical aid firm showed the company was only paying R550 towards medical insurance and not the full R700 deducted.
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“How can you take my money without informing me and I agree first? They didn’t talk to us about it. I already earn little and that money is important to me, I have a family. We can’t be forced to belong to a union that is close to management and doesn’t care about the problems of the workers,” said Mlotshwa.
“I know that Amcu can make a difference in my life because I see what they did for the workers of Marikana, so if we must die first, no problem,” Mlotshwa said.
He said the mine does not provide them with sufficient meal allowances, they do not have risk insurance, they receive a poor housing subsidy and have to fight for their benefits.
“Things are bad here. We dig for gold, but we have nothing to show for it. We can only take so much. It's embarrassing and painful that we have family men who take home R8,000, but they have been working here for more than 10 years. Where is the dignity in all of this?” said Mlotshwa.
Company spokesperson Jon Hericourt said the medical aid provider had been agreed to with NUM.
“They wanted to bring in a medical aid provider. We went through a process where we would find suitable medical schemes and ultimately the NUM chose the scheme and this is the one they wanted for their people. They said their members had bought into it.”
Though the Amcu members have been interdicted from detaining workers underground and picketing on the premises, a number of them proclaimed they wanted Joseph Mathunjwa, president of Amcu, to lead them.
On Tuesday officials from the mine used heavy chains and padlocks to stop the turnstile gate from operating, barring entry and exit to the shaft.
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The mine is on lockdown with a heavy contingent of private security and police on standby as negotiations continued to extract the miners from underground.
Narratives differ as to whether the miners, who have been underground since Sunday, are there voluntarily or are being held hostage. Women are among those underground.
A few wives of some of the mineworkers gathered at the shaft entrance in the hopes that their husbands would resurface.
NUM and the mine said the employees are being held hostage while Amcu members claim it is not a hostage situation and the majority of the people underground are their members who are acting on their own will to force the employer to take their grievances seriously.
The company approached the labour court on an urgent basis on Monday after the standoff between the company and Amcu escalated.
Mngcineni Ntshangase, a miner who was trapped inside the premises when the gates were sealed, told TimesLIVE Premium they might not have food and water.
“I’m not afraid even if I’m locked inside, we won’t back down. I don’t know when they will open for us, but since they stopped us from taking food down there for our colleagues, we might as well all starve.
“This is not a hostage [situation], our members are in there because they want to force the mine to take our problems seriously. People who belong to Amcu are in a majority so when they say our members are holding NUM members hostage, what do they mean?” asked Ntshangase.
Mathunjwa has claimed that about 1,700 of the total 1,800 employees have completed membership forms to join Amcu.
“So it is completely nonsensical to claim that anybody is being held hostage when it is clear that Amcu is the outright majority,” he said.
However, Mpho Phakedi, NUM deputy general secretary, differed, saying that they are not suppressing the workers' rights to association but are operating in a closed-shop arrangement and that most of the miners underground are their members.
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