{"id":12246,"date":"2012-07-10T00:25:20","date_gmt":"2012-07-09T22:25:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/07\/union-ready-to-ask-court-to-reopen-aquarius-mine\/"},"modified":"2012-07-10T00:25:20","modified_gmt":"2012-07-09T22:25:20","slug":"union-ready-to-ask-court-to-reopen-aquarius-mine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/union-ready-to-ask-court-to-reopen-aquarius-mine\/","title":{"rendered":"Union ready to ask court to reopen Aquarius mine"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

By Sherilee Lakmidas<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

JOHANNESBURG, July 9<\/span> (Reuters) – South Africa’s radical
\nAssociation of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) said it
\nhad gained representation of most workers at a mine that
\nAquarius Platinum is closing and that it was willing to
\ngo to court to have it reopened.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Aquarius, the world’s fourth-largest platinum producer, is
\nthe latest mining company for which the militant new union has
\nclaimed majority membership in at least one mine – a development
\nthat will not be welcomed in board rooms.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

AMCU has been waging often violent turf battles for members
\nwith the dominant National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), tapping
\ninto a deepening vein of discontent with the labour
\norganization, which is seen as too close to the ruling ANC
\npolitical party.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Aquarius said in late June it was placing its Everest mine
\non “care and maintenance” – industry speak for closing down –
\n“pending better prices and improved industrial relations”.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“We call on the board to withdraw their decision and reopen
\nthe mine,” AMCU President Joseph Mathunjwa told a news
\nconference on Monday.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

He said AMCU was now the majority union at the Everest Mine
\nwith 1,100 members out of the 1,600-strong workforce and that
\nAquarius had violated labour laws by not consulting with it in a
\ntimely fashion over the Everest closure. He said the union was
\nwilling to go to court over the issue.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

South African labour legislation is often seen as
\nunion-friendly, but the AMCU’s prospects for success in court
\nmay not be great, because companies are careful to act within
\nthe law.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Aquarius officials could not immediately be reached for
\ncomment.
\n\u00a0 Continued…<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Sherilee Lakmidas JOHANNESBURG, July 9 (Reuters) – South Africa’s radical Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) said it had gained representation of most workers at a mine that Aquarius Platinum is closing and that it was willing to go to court to have it reopened. Aquarius, the world’s fourth-largest platinum producer, is the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-12246","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12246\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}