JOHANNESBURG- A group of nonviolent miners have gathered in front of the Blyvoor mine on the West Rand, close to Carltonville, to demand information about mine management’s plans for resolving the labor dispute.
At the Peter Skeat operation, more than 800 workers are staging a sit-in and demanding that their demands be met.
They are urging the termination of the current closed-shop agreement with the Blyvoor Workers Union as well as non-payment incentives.
The current precarious labor relations in the gold mining sector appear to be best described as “out of the frying pan and into the fire.”
The scene at Blyvoor is very similar to what we recently witnessed at the Gold One mine, with the exception that this time the National Union of Mineworkers is outside peering inside.
Workers underground reportedly want NUM to be given the right to organize at the operation, despite the union’s distance from the sit-in.
Management is allegedly refusing to respond to employees ‘ complaints about their prior commitments to profit sharing and 13th checks for the December holidays.
To encourage workers to return to the surface so that discussions can continue in safer and more conducive circumstances, four shop stewards have been sent down the shaft.
Industrial action has in the past caused the Blyvoor mine to sputter under different management.
This includes the 2012 wildcat strike, which led to liquidation.
In the wake of rising labor unrest, a mine redesign in 2021 was shelved.
If the current argument goes on unabated, it might end up being expensive.
