Two percent of shift workers at Lonmin Plc’s South African operations turned up for work on Friday, the platinum miner said.

The world’s third-largest platinum miner has been crippled by a four-week strike at its Marikana operations.

The company signed a “peace deal” with some of its unions on Thursday.

However, that did not include militant breakaway union AMCU.

The Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union said on Friday it does not see why it should be part of the Marikana peace pact.

Union official Jimmy Gama said the company "must address the needs of the workers".

"We are not party to the violence," he told reporters in Johannesburg.

The union was asked why it did not sign a peace accord reached on Thursday after a shooting last month at Lonmin’s Marikana mine in the North West.

The Marikana worker representatives also did not sign the agreement.

The parties who did sign the peace accord in the early hours of Thursday morning were Lonmin, and trade unions the National Union of Mineworkers, Solidarity and Uasa.

The accord was aimed at paving the way for wage negotiations and included a commitment to promoting a peaceful work environment.

Amcu president Joseph Mathunjwa said the union had not received another mandate from workers, so it could not approach Lonmin with another wage offer.

"This accord flies in the face of fairness," he said.

He said neither he nor his union ever put a gun to anyone's head, so there was no need to sign a peace accord.

.

Comments

• Sign in or sign up to comment

Sat May 18 17:26:51 SAST 2013 ::

Sep 7, 2012

Papage

That means NUM represent only 2% and the rest 98% belong to the AMCU. the "peace deal" is dead.
Report Abuse

Sep 7, 2012

warry

Nope they went to queue to get malema beret. They will be back on Monday.
Report Abuse

Sep 7, 2012

Papage

OK Warry. I think the best thing to do is to ask Mr Thabo Mbeki to talk peace with everyone, he has done it out there in Africa, so what is diffent here at home. He is a good man, good President of all time, knows business and the thinking of Employees
Report Abuse

Sep 7, 2012

JOSH11

Why cant they sign the peace deal and negotiate because you have to start somewhere and sooner or later those miners will change thier minds because its been weeks now with no salary on the table so they cant survive by singing all stupid songs, even educated people like public servants, University lectures and staff allows negotiation to take place


As a manager i will never allow that situation where staff dictates for me and must give to thier demands, tomorrow they will say we are powerful than management and shareholders.


If those people where all educated this could have been long gone but they believe in that empty vessel Malema who just enrich his pocket.
Report Abuse

Sep 7, 2012

Nwanawamukalaha

This is good for the workers. If need be, the sick Lonmin CEO who's at the hospital can pack his life bags and fokof.....................
Report Abuse

Sep 7, 2012

Nwanawamukalaha

@JOSH11

If those people where all educated this could have been long gone but they believe in that empty vessel Malema who just enrich his pocket.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Your anger towards cde Malema will not justify the stance in Marikana or Lonmin. RDO's deserves what they are asking for.

Contradictions:
Earlier last week the Lonmin management said the miners were earning R11500 before deductions. After the peace accord which was signed y/day between them and the untrustworthy NUM, they are saying they can't afford to give the workers the increase of R7000 per employee, what does that tell you?

Were the workers lying about the R4000 they claimed to be earning or what?

R12500 - R7000 = R5500.

That means the workers were right all along. And a black man who is not the owner of the mine is sent to the conference to announce that.Bull, these white lonmin owners are just monging money out of Mzasni and don't care about the living conditions of the black mining employees. I say so because amongst them, i never saw a white zabalazing employee............
Report Abuse

Sep 7, 2012

Stimela

Good! the 2% that are showing up are sell outs, lonmin must wake up and smell the coffee. the workers are tired!
Report Abuse

Sep 7, 2012

Boogie1985

Truth be told, Lonmin should plough back in the community of marikana by building proper housing for its employees and thats it. these guys are labourers, how much are they expecting to earn? graduates with honours degrees are earning peanuts both in private companies and gov. Think like a business man, would you spend 500million a month on salaries only, what will your return on investment be at the end of the day? THE REALITY IS, IF THEIR DEMANDS ARE GRUNTED, WITHIN 6 MONTHS MORE THAN HALF OF THEM WILL BE RETRENCHED SO JUST DO WITH WHAT YOU GET @LEAST YOU ARE EARNING A SALARY
Report Abuse

Read all 8 comments