Placer Dome Jobs Rally Draws World Union Support

A crowd up to 3,000 strong cheered, danced and sang today on a township football field near Johannesburg, as trade union leaders from around the world declared their support for South African gold miners unjustly sacked by mining multinational Placer Dome.

COUNTING ON THE WORLD'S WORKERS:
A face in today's crowd.
(Photo: Sean Woods)

Organising the rally at Bekkersdal was South Africa's National Union of Mineworkers. The NUM is campaigning for the reinstatement of 2,895 workers recently retrenched at Placer Dome's Western Areas joint venture. These sackings represent a cut of around 40 percent in the company's South African workforce, and are a potentially explosive issue in a country which has an unemployment rate of more than 30 percent.

At the global level, the NUM is affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), which will be holding its World Congress in Durban, South Africa, on 3-5 November.

Miners' leaders at the ICEM-organised World Gold Forum in Durban last week unanimously voted to launch a global campaign against Placer Dome until the company negotiates a solution to the retrenchment crisis with the NUM.

Responding to that call, the ICEM President and Vice-Presidents joined other union leaders on the platform at the rally today. Bekkersdal is just next to the Placer Dome mine.

To the enthusiasm of the crowd, Romano Bellissima from Italy, Jose Gonzaga from Brazil, Fred Higgs from Britain, Paul Lootens from Belgium, John Maitland from Australia, Hubertus Schmoldt from Germany, Anders Stendalen from Sweden and Robert E. Wages from the USA were introduced. With them were ICEM General Secretary Vic Thorpe and Deputy General Secretary Peter Michalzik. All were there to pledge their support for the South African miners' campaign.

Shouts of Amandla from the international speakers drew a loud response of Awethu from the retrenched miners, their families, their colleagues and their neighbours. Amandla Awethu (Power Is Ours) is a well-known slogan in South Africa, dating back to the years of struggle by the trade unions and others against apartheid. It has been adopted as the motto for the upcoming ICEM World Congress.

"The employers are on strike," NUM regional chairperson Obed Maila told the Bekkersdal rally. "The workers want to work, but the employers want to stop us. We are a test case."

Placer Dome has "a record throughout the world of destroying jobs, destroying the environment and destroying communities," NUM General Secretary Gwede Mantashe said. "That is why we have to campaign worldwide to make this company live up to its responsibilities."

NUM President James Motlatsi recalled that, together with most of the mining companies and South Africa's Chamber of Mines, he had recently helped persuade many central banks, governments and others to stop selling off gold reserves.

"If I could go round the world to help save the gold industry," Motlatsi told the cheering miners, "then Placer Dome can recall NUM members back to their jobs. We will fight this battle with Placer Dome for as long as it takes." Motlatsi is a Vice-President of the ICEM.

"A fully-fledged international campaign to exert maximum pressure on Placer Dome" was announced by ICEM President Hans Berger. "We were told in July that the retrenchments were necessary because of the low gold price," Berger pointed out. "But ever since the price increased massively, we have been told that the retrenchments were necessary because the NUM was not prepared to accept full calendar operations at the mine, on the company's own terms.

"These are lies, utter lies," Berger insisted, to the evident approval of his audience. "The truth of the matter is that Placer Dome is not concerned by the fate of one of its most important assets - its workers. It is solely concerned with maximising its profits."

"At our World Gold Forum, representatives of the companies' World Gold Council and of the South African Reserve Bank congratulated trade unions worldwide on their fight to save the gold industry," John Maitland said. "But Placer Dome have responded by turning against workers and their families."

Maitland, who is an ICEM Vice-President, pledged the support of Australian miners' union the CFMEU, of which he is National Secretary. As a first step in the campaign, the CFMEU would be picketing Placer Dome offices in Sydney, he announced.

Maitland also told the rally that messages of support are coming in from ICEM-affiliated unions worldwide.

These include a solidarity message from Placer Dome workers in Canada, the company's home country. "It is unconscionable that in this day of ever increasing profits by global corporations, workers face redundancy of such a magnitude as that faced by our brothers and sisters in South Africa," wrote Lawrence McBrearty, Canadian National Director of the ICEM-affiliated United Steelworkers of America (USWA). "We have a responsibility as a labour movement to support you in rectifying this injustice and rest assured that the 180,000 steelworkers in Canada and 500,000-plus members in the United States will do everything we can."