Joseph Mathunjwa remains president of the union he founded, the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union , after he was elected at a congress at which he was the only candidate up for the position. This was no surprise.I am not a great leader, but I am good… Hitler himself was great, but not good,” Mathunjwa, enigmatic at the best of times, was quoted as saying at the end of the union’s three-day gathering on the East Rand.
The stakes are high. Amcu emerged from more than a decade of obscurity in Mpumalanga when it exploded on the platinum belt in 2012, dislodging the once-dominant National Union of Mineworkers in a violent turf war that rumbles on, often behind the scenes, to this day. Now that his hold over Amcu has been reaffirmed, Mathunjwa, whose tone on issues of capital and labour remain as shrill as ever, may want to make a splash.
Still, there are signs that Amcu’s militancy has limits. Its initial platinum wage demands for its lowest-paid members were for hikes of between 45% and 50% at a time when inflation was only 4.3%. However, in the past its demands have been 100% or more and it has since tempered those to closer to 13% to 15%. The companies are, for the most part, making money and have made decent offers.
When various allowances are added, the total package – or cost to company – is around R18,000 a month per employee. Amplats has not disclosed its offers. This is in contrast to Amcu demands of R1,500 a month extra on basic pay. There is still a wide gap between what Amcu says it wants and company offers, but it is slowly closing and is far from the yawning gulf that existed in previous talks.
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