*3,600 sacked as S. Africa labour unrest deepens* By by Andrew Beatty (AFP) 7 hours ago
JOHANNESBURG Close to 3,600 strikers were sacked at South African mines on Tuesday in the latest wave of mass lay-offs to rock Africa's largest economy. Two mining firms said they had fired the workers for taking part in illegal work stoppages. Platinum miner Atlatsa said 2,161 miners had been given until the end of business on Wednesday to appeal their dismissal. Meanwhile Gold One sacked 1,435 people -- more than 75 percent of its workforce -- at a gold and uranium mine near Johannesburg Both wildcat strikes have run since October 1. Amid rising anger at South Africa's failure to tackle vast income gaps that plague the country 18 years after the end of Apartheid, scores of miners, truckers and other workers have downed tools unilaterally, demanding higher pay. While a handful of mine owners have acquiesced to demands for higher pay and better working and living conditions, others have taken a tougher line. Last week mining powerhouse Anglo American announced it had sacked 12,000 workers at its platinum mine in Rustenburg in the north of the country. On Tuesday Gold One -- a mid-sized mining group partially owned by the China-Africa Development Fund -- said the workers had until Thursday to appeal their dismissal. "Dismissed employees have been informed of their right to appeal their dismissal," it said. "The South African Police Service is maintaining a strong presence at the operation to ensure that there are no acts of intimidation or violence. Currently only essential services are continuing." While mass sackings have been used in the past in South Africa as a means of gaining negotiating leverage, after months of sometimes deadly labour unrest that could prove a risky gambit today. Over 50 people are thought to have died since the start of August in strike-related violence, which threatens to derail South Africa's already weak economic growth. South African bosses suspend 15,000 gold miners over wildcat strike [image: South African bosses suspend 15,000 gold miners over wildcat strike] <http://libcom.org/files/images/blog/photo_1347269945007-1-0.jpg> In the South African region of West Rand, Gold Fields, one of the worlds largest producers of gold have suspended 15,000 miners who yesterday took unofficial strike action, and are currently seeking a court injunction to bring the strike to an end. Reasons for the strike are not 100% clear; however, it is believed that dissatisfaction with local NUM branch leadership, and demands for improved pay are the main causes of the dispute. Throughout the mining disputes across South Africa, workers are becoming increasingly dissatisfied with the approach of the NUM to negotiating with the bosses. Workers rejection of the NUM is likely to escalate, as it has emerged that senior NUM leaders are earning salaries equivalent to those of union barons in the UK, despite the wages of the rank and file being significantly lower. There are also several former NUM leaders who sit on the board of directors at Lonmin. The NUM invest significant amounts of union subs into a variety of companies. There has been an allegation by the new mineworkers union (AMCU) that the NUM have been investing monies into the mine companies themselves, hence their refusal to fight for miners interests. This allegation is unproven at the moment. Elsewhere, workers at Lonmin platinum mine have failed to show up for yet another week. Business consultants that Lonmin brought in following the crash of their share prices has gone on record saying that Lonmin need to start closing mines. The dispute across South Africas gold and platinum mines has no end in sight. The more that the corrupt NUM leadership cosy up to the bosses and the gangsters who run the ANC, the more the workers are going to take matters into their own hands. Solidarity comrades! South Africa Shows Europe How Anti-Austerity Protests Are Done [image: Tyler Durden's picture]<http://www.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden> Submitted by Tyler Durden <http://www.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden> on 10/08/2012 21:33 -0400 While we have grown 'used' to hearing of protests in several European peripheral nations, South Africa has turned the anti-austerity protest amplifier to 11 in recent days. From the Lonmin massacre<http://www.zerohedge.com/news/workers-shot-another-south-african-gold-mine-miner-strike-spreads>and subsequent wage increase<http://www.zerohedge.com/news/lonmins-south-african-miners-get-22-wage-increase-end-strike>to the truck-drivers' strike and Amplats firing of 12,000 workers<http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-10-05/amplats-refuses-follow-lonmins-footsteps-fires-12000-striking-south-african-workers>, Reuters is reporting<http://af.reuters.com/article/investingNews/idAFJOE89702820121008?sp=true>that South Africa's local government worker's union has now said it will join a nationwide strike amid the labor unrest in the mining sector. *Demanding 'market-related salaries' this strike would bring the South African economy to its knees* - at a time of rising deficit concerns. Critically, this has dramatic repercussions. Since *firing people is no longer an option* as "Those who are dismissed will *make sure that there will be no operations operating and that will cause a massacre just like at Marikana*," some companies will be forced out of business (reducing supply) or suffer significant margin compression on cost increases leaving commodity producers struggling - which will inevitably mean *prices for end-users will rise* (slowing end-user demand or crushing their margins). *It seems the South African labor unions found the M.A.D. card.* Via Reuters South Africa, JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's local government workers' union said on Monday it would launch a strike over pay in the next few days, the first sign of a wave of labour unrest in Africa's biggest economy spreading from the mines into the public sector. Since August, *close to 100,000 workers, including 75,000 in the mining sector, have downed tools in often illegal and violent protests* that look likely to hit growth this year and undermine the government's efforts to cut its budget deficit. Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan has *promised to reduce the deficit from the 4.6 percent of GDP forecast for this financial year*. Any public sector wage increase would make that more difficult. "*The union is mobilising towards a national protest*, which would begin as soon as this week," South African Municipal Workers Union (SAMWU) spokesman Tahir Sema said. A majority of SAMWU's 190,000 members are expected to join the *strike for "market-related salaries"* which may last for one day or drag on indefinitely, Sema said. ... Moody's cut South Africa's government bond rating last month, citing the government's difficulty in keeping up with economic challenges and widening strikes. ELAND ON STRIKE Wildcat strikes have *already shut down large parts of the mining industry*in the world's top platinum producer and a major supplier of gold, pushing prices of precious metals higher. *Xstrata is the latest victim*, with workers at its Eland platinum mine walking out on Friday. The mine is expected to produce 176,000 ounces of platinum this year, compared with forecast production nationwide of 4.9 million ounces of the precious metal used in jewellery and vehicle catalytic converters. *Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) fired 12,000 wildcat strikers on Friday*, a high-stakes attempt by the world's top producer to squash illegal stoppages that have hit output at seven of its mines. The *dismissed workers were defiant and threatened a repeat of the showdown with security forces at rival Lonmin's Marikana mine* that led to the police killing of 34 miners on August 16, the bloodiest such incident since the end of apartheid in 1994. *"Those who are dismissed will make sure that there will be no operations operating and that will cause a massacre just like at Marikana,"* said one worker representative, who asked not to be named. ... A *strike by more than 20,000 truck drivers entered its third week on Monday *, hitting logistics companies and leading to filling stations running out of some grades of fuel. Wage talks with employers were expected to resume on Tuesday. The main transport union, SATAWU, said it was gearing up for a one-day rail and port worker strike on October 15, which could hit exports of coal and other minerals. 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