109 miners escape from gold mine in South Africa but others continue union standoff, official says
109 miners escape from gold mine in South Africa but others continue union standoff, official says
A company official says more than 100 miners have escaped from a gold mine in South Africa after being held underground for three days by fellow employees in a union dispute.
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This is the best summary I could come up with:
Around 450 workers remain in the mine, the official said, with an unknown number of them preventing the others from leaving as they demand formal recognition of their labor union.
The company that runs the mine says it has rough estimates that around 110-120 of the miners underground might be supporters of the unregistered union and were holding the others, although it was not certain.
Mine officials say approximately 15 were injured in scuffles, including a man that authorities think sustained a serious head injury.
On Wednesday, 109 miners forced their way out, said Ziyaad Hassam, the head of legal at Gold One International, the company that owns the mine.
“(Mine) management and NUM are refusing by all means to grant AMCU access into the operation in terms of recognition,” he said.
Police sent to the mine have taken a cautious approach and not launched an operation to go underground and confront miners who might be holding others.
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I like how they skip over the part that these miners are basically slaves and their "Union" is their revolution. The news just doesn't investigate anymore.
What really raised my eyebrows was that the New Kleinfontein Mining Company shares its name with a white separatist Afrikaaner enclave.
They are not slaves they are workers, just like myself working in a mine in South Africa, though I am in platinum. You have full rights to join any union you like in South Africa, it is constitutionally protected. What these guys are doing is an illegal strike, in terms of being violent and forcing others to join them against their will. AMCU has been a radical union, I worked during their 5 month legal strike back in 2014 in the platinum belt. Things were hectic, people were starving and crime really shot up.
Also in South Africa, if you work at a mine but did not join a union, you are automatically part of the largest union, we call it in loco. Nothing wrong with unions nor bargaining for better pay and working conditions, but there is wrong in violent unions that threatens over employees choosing not to participate or in this cases holding them hostage.
I worked during their 5 month legal strike back in 2014 in the platinum belt.
Scab
I like how you skipped over the part that they are already represented by a union and a second union is attempting a hostile takeover with violence. These two unions have been competing since 1998 when AMCU broke away from NUM.