An alleged underground sit-in protest by mineworkers at a Gauteng gold mine has brought to the fore the issue of fierce competition for members and organisational rights among unions in the mining sector.
The National Union of Mineworkers (Num), which enjoys full organisational rights at the Gold One mine in Springs, faces a challenge from the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu), which claims to have unseated Num as the majority union at the mine.
According to Amcu, mineworkers, who are now its members, staged a planned underground sit-in lasting more than 72 hours. However, Num and mine management say this was a hostage situation led by about 40 Amcu members who held about 500 workers underground against their will.
Workers started coming to surface on Wednesday morning after a marathon meeting between unions and mine management on Tuesday.
Labour analyst Terry Bell told TimesLIVE Premium that developments at Gold One were symptomatic of the problem of unions in competition.
It is further complicated by political intervention where a union — Num provides a classic example — becomes an effective conveyor belt to high political office and big business.
— Terry Bell, labour analyst
“It was this that led to the early call in the 1980s for ‘one industry, one union’. This also suited managements as they knew exactly who they were dealing with.”
However, Bell said that though a single union would bring about stability, there were concerns that it may easily end up being controlled by management.
“A single, centrally controlled union also enables managements to build close relationships with leading union figures, a situation that can result in union presidents being paid hefty allowances by management and appointed shop stewards being given perks such as credit cards and cars,” Bell said.
Bell said incidents similar to the protest at Gold One mine are bound to happen as unions compete for members.
“It is always messy when there is more than one union in a workplace, but it should be left to the workers in each workplace to decide on which union they wish to join. And at times of disputes, it should be up to the shop floor to decide on which action to take and to support whichever union backs the democratically decided action,” Bell said.
He said what should be key is having “a thoroughly democratic union structure, from the shop floor up”.
Bell said the problem arises when unions “become centralised and bureaucratic, with a hierarchy of office bearers, and shop floor decisions can be over-ridden by the leadership”.
“It is further complicated by political intervention where a union — Num provides a classic example — becomes an effective conveyor belt to high political office and big business, for example [energy minister] Gwede Mantashe, [former agriculture minister] Senzeni Zokwana and [former MPL] Marcel Golding,” Bell said.
Labour lawyer Osborne Molatudi from Molatudi Attorneys said there are two ways organisational rights may be acquired, “namely through sufficiently representative trade unions or majority representative trade unions, which are either acting alone or with other trade unions”.
Molatudi said enjoying organisational rights is, however, subject to whether the employer and the respective trade union have entered into a collective agreement as outlined in section 18 of the Labour Relations Act.
“The basic requirement is that of sufficient representation. A sufficiently representative trade union is entitled to only three of the five organisational rights, namely trade union access to the workplace, deduction of trade union subscriptions and leave for trade union representatives,” Molatudi said.
Num spokesperson Livhuwani Mammburu said they were informed that 15 workers, who were among those who were underground and held against their will, were injured.
“They got injured after being assaulted by the group of 40 individuals ... so it’s a hostage situation,” Mammburu said.
Meanwhile, Amcu secretary Jeff Mphahlele told Newsroom Afrika on Wednesday morning that Num had lost control of the mine, with Amcu now representing about 90% of the workers at Gold One.
The latest incident at Gold One mirrors one at the Douglas colliery eMalahleni in 1998, where the majority of Num members, led by Joseph Mathunjwa (now Amcu president), went on strike and remained underground.
The action was opposed by Num leadership, including Mantashe, who subsequently expelled then local Num leader Mathunjwa, who went on to form Amcu.
