* Marikana bloodshed puts labour relations on new footing
* ANC-union alliance losing grips on labour
* Rand falls, confidence wanes due to strikes
By David Dolan and Jon Herskovitz
IKANINI, South Africa, Oct 7 (Reuters) – The rules of the
game in South Africa’s labour market have changed and the new
players are workers such as Tshepo Modise and Thulani Soko,
wildcat strikers at mining giant Anglo American Platinum
(Amplats).
They feel underpaid, stretched to the limit financially and
betrayed by established unions they say are more concerned about
ties with politicians and management than workers in the shafts.
But to a few global mining firms, they are part of an
overpaid workforce breaking their contracts and in the
crosshairs for sacking as costs are cut at marginal shafts in
South Africa.
“We no longer want to sit at the table with unions. We’ve
been sabotaged,” said Modise, a 30-year-old machine operator at
Ikanini, a slum settlement next to an Amplats mine 120
kilometres (75 miles) northwest of Johannesburg.
Since the end of apartheid in 1994, workers have won steady
wage increases, but millions of jobless South Africans have
missed out on the gains, becoming reliant on the state or
relatives for help.
Continued…
