* Company sacks 12,000 workers who ignored deadline
* Strikers remain defiant
* Gold miner Harmony has given strikers Thurs deadline
By John Mkhize and Olivia Kumwenda
CARLETONVILLE, South Africa, Oct 24 (Reuters) – AngloGold
Ashanti sacked 12,000 wildcat strikers who defied a
deadline to return to work on Wednesday, the latest South
African company to resort to mass firings after weeks of
crippling labour unrest.
Thousands of stick-wielding strikers responded by rallying
near the operations of AngloGold, the world’s third-largest
bullion producer, saying they would not buckle under company
pressure.
“Can you see how many of us are here? No one will fire such
a number of people,” one of the labour leaders said to the crowd
of strikers at the company’s West Wits operations near
Carletonville, about 65 km (40 miles) west of Johannesburg.
Several companies have told strikers to return to work or
lose their jobs in a last-ditch move to resolve widening strikes
that have poisoned labour relations and marred the image of
Africa’s top economy.
AngloGold had given strikers until noon (1000 GMT) on
Wednesday to return. The roughly 12,000 striking employees at
its West Wits operation failed to return, spokesman Alan Fine
said.
Continued…
