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14 July, 2005
A bitter diamond-mining strike in Botswana erupted last week when workers angered by a company take-it-or-leave-it pay offer defied union leadership and struck Debswana, the Botswana diamond monopoly run as a joint venture between DeBeers and the government of the southern African nation.
ICEM affiliate Botswana Mining Workers’ Union (BMWU) was pushed to the defensive as the company used a prior legal ruling to suspend union matters by charging 32 branch and national officers with contempt of court. Some 2,000 workers among 6,000 miners at four highly profitable Debswana operations struck 23 August over a pay and bonus offer that fell far inferior to one given supervisors.
According to the BMWU, the workers walked because the inferior pay/bonus offer was pulled from the table after rejection, and also due to an industrial court ruling barring a strike, a clear sign that the justice system was one-sided. The BMWU was attempting to put together a settlement that would end the strike and halt the harsh court action by Debswana and the government at the weekend.