Mining Weekly reports that the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) celebrated Workers Day on Monday with a rally at the Griffons Rugby Stadium, in Welkom, in the Free State.
National treasurer Jimmy Gama, outlining the union’s plan of action for the year, said they would be “intensifying our struggle” for the betterment of the working conditions of mineworkers by seeking to ensure that mines paid their workers a “living wage”. “We do not accept the National Minimum Wage of R20 an hour or R3 500 a month, that has been proposed by government. This is a slave wage and [an] insult to workers,” he stated. He indicated that Amcu aimed to ensure that, within the next five years, workers across all sectors earned a salary that enabled them to support their families and sustain themselves as “dignified human beings”. On Amcu’s position in respect of the newly launched SA Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu), Gama noted that the union was already affiliated to the National Council of Trade Unions (Nactu). However, he revealed that there had been discussions between the leaderships of Saftu and Nactu, respectively, but not between Saftu and Amcu directly.
- Read this report in full at Mining Weekly
- See too, Amcu decries government’s ‘failures’, calls for South Africa First approach, at Mining Weekly
- And also, ANC has been the marshal of oppression of black people, says Amcu, at SABC News
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