National Union of Mineworkers (South Africa)

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The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) is a South African miners' union. It was founded in 1982, has around 300,000 members and is traditionally close to the ANC . Senzeni Zokwana has been the chairman since 2000. Nelson Mandela was honorary chairman for life. The NUM is a member of the trade union umbrella organization COSATU .

history

Miners' strike in 2007

On December 4, 2007, the NUM called for a protest strike against the dangerous working conditions in the South African mines. The trigger was the high number of fatal accidents in 2006 and 2007.

Miners strike 2012

The NUM is one of the two parties whose conflict escalated the South African miners' strike to a bloody state. Since many miners did not feel properly represented by the NUM due to its closeness to the government, the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) was founded in 1998 , which aggressively recruited members.

On August 10, 2012, the AMCU went on a wildcat strike demanding a wage increase from Rand 4,000 to Rand 12,500 for the drillers at the Marikana mine. The NUM considers this demand to be excessive, since the drillers are in principle the most uneducated miners and do the simplest, albeit the heaviest, work. In addition, there is a collective agreement between the NUM and the mining company Lonmin from 2011. The trigger was a wage increase from 4000 to 9500 Rand at Impala Platinum , which the AMCU had forced with a seventeen-week strike.

As a result, many miners switched from NUM to rival AMCU, which has a more aggressive and sometimes violent policy.

As a result, the conflict between the two unions escalated to bloody clashes with the police. In total, over 40 people were killed, most of them from police shots. Two police officers and two security guards also died.

structure

NUM, which operates nationwide, is made up of eleven local regions and is represented nationwide in Johannesburg , the capital of the Gauteng Province . The federal umbrella organization was founded in 1985; the eleven regions are largely organized independently of one another. In each region there is a large number of offices and employees who are intended to serve as a contact point for the members, they have their branches as follows:

In addition, the NUM maintains representative offices at each shaft . The so-called Shaft Stewards (shaft supervisors) are shop stewards who are exclusively recruited from active members of the NUM at the respective shaft or work section. In addition, it should be added here that a mine in South Africa is often composed of several individual shafts, which can be scattered over large areas. If there is only one person on a shaft who would like to take over this office, this person will be appointed automatically. In the case of multiple nominations, the shop steward is elected by a simple majority .

There are also “workplace committees” for education, health, safety and women. In accordance with the statutes of the NUM, the committees must meet at each mine if more than 50 registered members work in an organizational unit. The committee consists of the manhole supervisors and must meet at least once a week.

The manhole supervisors and workplace committees are each elected for three years. The elected confidential counselors can exercise their office for a maximum of three years, but at least until the next election.

activities

In addition to collective bargaining, the NUM takes on a number of other important tasks. Their representatives on the mines are the first point of contact when it comes to occupational safety and the general health conditions for workers and employees. This is due to the existence of the workplace committees. These activities, especially those relating to occupational safety, sometimes go so far that the trade union representative on site can stop work in the event of unsatisfactory safety measures. The union representative can also refuse access to the dismantling site to employees of external companies if he has the impression that they have not been adequately instructed with regard to occupational safety. As a rule, if there are safety concerns, the respective foremen ( Steiger ) and section managers are consulted and a joint decision on how to proceed further is decided. Due to negative press, the mining company Anglo American has provided the Shaft Stewards with ever more extensive competencies, so that so-called mine banishments , an access block for service technicians due to safety concerns, can occur again and again, especially in their mines . As a rule, these people receive a safety briefing lasting several days, after which they can be re-entered.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ South African Miners Strike for Better Safety Conditions. Retrieved August 21, 2012 .
  2. ^ Beyond the chaos at Marikana: The search for the real issues. Retrieved August 21, 2012 .
  3. ↑ What's behind the Marikana massacre? Retrieved August 21, 2012 .
  4. ↑ Over 30 dead in South Africa. Retrieved August 21, 2012 .
  5. ↑ NUM History. Retrieved February 7, 2016 .
  6. ^ Constitution of The National Union of Mineworkers. Retrieved February 7, 2016 .