NUM Strikes Gold Mining Sector in South Africa

The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) in South Africa has shut the world’s largest gold mining industry by launching a strike of 80,000 workers at mines owned by the world’s biggest mining houses. NUM began the strike last night and other gold miners—numbering some 15,000 and representing by two smaller unions—are expected to join the strike today and later this week. The dispute is over pay, as well as mining companies’ failure to make good on work terms agreed to in 2003 bargaining. Considering the current trend of a weakened rand and the fact that gold prices remain on an upward curve, NUM’s pay demands of between 10-12% are logical and legitimate. Mining houses, led by Harmony, Goldfields and AngloGold, negotiating through South Africa’s Chamber of Mines, are offering only 4.5% to 5%, depending on job classification.