UPDATE: BHP Billiton Faces Strike Over Wages In South Africa
August 25 2009 - 1:24PM
Dow Jones News
Workers at BHP Billiton Ltd.'s (BHP) Samancor manganese alloys
operation in South Africa could strike this week after wage
negotiations deadlocked, their union said Tuesday.
The operation has scaled back in recent months in the face of
weak demand and BHP Billiton spokeswoman Bronwyn Wilkinson said the
company didn't believe a strike would affect current or planned
production.
"After three months of negotiations between the company and
Numsa (the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa), no
agreement has been reached," Wilkinson said.
She said the company has offered workers a 7% wage increase
against the union's demands for 8.8%.
Companies across industries in South Africa have been hit with
demands for above-inflation pay increases and the threat of
strikes. Production at Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd.'s (IMP.JO)
largest mining operation in the country was halted Tuesday after
underground workers put down their tools in what a spokesman for
the National Union of Mineworkers said was a protest against delays
in securing a wage deal.
Numsa said its members planned to strike Thursday at Samancor's
operation in Meyerton, and if its demands weren't met it would call
on its members at other BHP Billiton plants to join the strike in
solidarity. A union spokesman said there were more than 600 members
in Meyerton.
"Our members have no luxury of time to beg the filthy rich BHP
Billiton management whilst on a daily basis, workers are ultra
hungry and super exploited," Numsa said.
BHP Billiton's Wilkinson said the Metalloys operation was forced
to suspend production for the three months earlier this year in
response to poor market conditions, and it is currently running at
below 50% of its full capacity.
"The company has chosen to carefully control costs rather than
implementing reduced work weeks and retrenchments, in the effort to
mitigate the effects of the market downturn on employees," she
said.
Separately, Johannesburg-based Implats, the world's
second-largest producer of the metal after Anglo Platinum Ltd.
(AMS.JO), said output had been halted by a strike at its Rustenburg
operation. Its Marula and refining operations continue to run as
normal, it said.
The action comes as NUM consults with members over an improved
offer from the company that would see pay raised 10% across the
board. The union over the weekend called off a strike planned for
Monday.
NUM spokesman Lesiba Seshoka said there was no clear indication
yet whether most union members had accepted the offer from Implats.
The company and the union are due to meet again Wednesday.
Consumer price inflation peaked at 13.7% in August last year,
but has been steadily easing since then. At the same time, Africa's
biggest economy is struggling with its first recession in 17 years
as manufacturing and mining companies have been hit with a slump in
demand.
-By Robb M. Stewart, Dow Jones Newswires; +27 11 783 7848;
robb.stewart@dowjones.com