* Wages low, but mining firms can ill afford steep hikes
* Wildcat strikes may cut output, force more shaft closures
* Job cuts could lead to more unrest
By Ed Stoddard
JOHANNESBURG, Sept 5 (Reuters) – South Africa’s mining
industry is being sucked into a vicious circle as labour unrest
spreads from platinum to gold with steep wage demands neither
sector can afford.
Fueled by outrage over the police killing of 34 striking
miners last month, the militancy in the world’s top platinum
producer is leading to closed shafts and job losses,
triggering in turn more union and social tension.
“This may be the beginning of a ‘Miner Spring’. Perhaps we
have reached a point now where the inequity in the pay scale
would lead to broader civil disobedience and protest action,”
said Tony Healy, an expert on South African labour law.
The worker stridency has found fertile soil in the squalor
of the poor communities that ring the mines in South Africa, the
continent’s wealthiest economy but one scarred by the
inqualities of its racist past.
It is also the most serious challenge since the end of white
rule in 1994 to the unwritten pact at the heart of
post-apartheid political and economic power: unions aligned to
the ruling ANC deliver modestly higher wages for workers, while
also ensuring labour stability for big business.
Continued…
