Fin24 reports that a month into the wage strike at Sibanye-Stillwater's gold mines, members of striking unions have begun to cross the floor to non-striking unions in a bid to return to work and again receive salaries.
The strike commenced on 10 March with members of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) downing tools over their unmet wage demands. Solidarity and Uasa, which negotiated alongside NUM and Amcu, but ultimately accepted the company’s final wage offer and did not join the strike, have received an increasing number of membership applications from striking workers. Solidarity has been flooded with applications since month-end, amounting to around 100 applications to join, the union's general secretary Gideon du Plessis indicated. Uasa’s Franz Stehring said there has been a steady increase of applications numbering close to 1,000. Du Plessis said the floor-crossing came after a memo was distributed by Sibanye on 15 March, which advised employees on how to resign from their unions and whether they could change union membership. Sibanye’s James Wellsted said the memo offered a response to questions received from workers who were upset at having been pulled out on strike after a number of them had not voted in favour of a strike. Solidarity has expressed great concern over the developments and has insisted it will not process applications from NUM and Amcu members. It has accused Sibanye of deploying tactics to undermine the strike and create disharmony among unions. "We are under huge pressure by management to implement it, and we refuse because you become a strikebreaker, and a trade union can never ever be a strikebreaker," Du Plessis said. Stehring, however, said Uasa, as an apolitical organisation, would process the applications. The NUM and Amcu say they have not received any formal notices of resignation from members or from the company.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Lisa Steyn at Fin24 (subscriber access only)
- Read too, Sibanye CEO draws a line in the sand on wage increases, at Daily Maverick
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page