JOHANNESBURG Feb 21 (Reuters) – Impala Platinum
, the world’s second-largest platinum producer, said on
Tuesday it was hopeful that most of the workforce at its
Rustenburg operations would be persuaded by union leaders to
return to work.
But there is no guarantee that a mass meeting called by the
National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) will succeed in getting the
mineworkers back on the job as many have grievances with NUM and
may not listen to its leaders.
A violent labour dispute at the world’s largest single
platinum mine has already cost Implats at least 80,000 ounces in
lost output as the rival Association of Mineworkers and
Construction Union tries to recruit from a workforce that has
traditionally been aligned with NUM.
The dispute centered on a bonus offered to only part of the
workforce and has escalated into a violent struggle between
competing unions.
Implats said on Tuesday that NUM had finally been able to
hold a mass meeting there.
“We are hopeful that after the mass meeting, the NUM will be
able to persuade the majority of their members to return to
work,” Implats said in a statement.
Lesiba Seshoka, a spokesman for NUM, was also cautiously
optimistic.
“We are hopeful the meeting will lead to the end of the
protest action,” he said.
The workers on Tuesday were being addressed by NUM’s
leadership as well as by Zwelinzima Vavi, the general secretary
of the powerful Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU).
Illegal strike action at Rustenburg led Implats to fire over
17,000 workers. The company said the re-employment process was
continuing with more than 8,000 people re-hired to date.
These include 995 rock drill operators, but the company has
said it needs at least 2,000 before it can start hauling
platinum out of the ground again.
(Reporting By Sherilee Lakmidas and Ed Stoddard; Editing by
Alison Birrane)
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