Mineworkers continue strike

By Marthe van der Wolf
14 September 2007

The strike action at Consolidated Murchuson (Consmurch) mine in Gravelot, enters its fifth week. The undecided management put deaf ears over the workers.

Consmurch employs over 1200 mineworkers and produces antimony with gold as a by-product.

The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) intervened on behalf of the striking workers. But as the management doesn’t want to talk, there haven’t been any negotiations. Mineworkers vowed that the mine will either be ‘paradise’ or ‘Iraq’ depending on management’s responses.

The NUM condemns the inaction of management as well as their intransigence in dealing with worker demands.

"The employer wants to increase the living-out allowance with a meagre R50 from R300 and workers want something higer than that," says Onis Serothoane, the NUM’s co-ordinator in North-East region. "Management refuses to show up because they have ulterior motives and we will increase the heat over them."