EDITORIAL PAGE — The winds of change

In August of 1946, South African mine workers demanded and won a minimum wage of 10 shillings per day, which, to the best of our reckoning, works out to about $2. Then, in August of 1987, unionized miners again sought better wages and held their ground through a 21-day strike that shook the entire South African mining industry. The workers were also seeking better safety conditions and changes to the migrant labor system which housed them in single-sex hostels.

In the post-apartheid era, the National Union of Mineworkers has continued to seek a living wage and better working conditions for its members. But those efforts have taken on a new dimension, with union leaders calling for training and education programs, a grading system that will reward and encourage improved skills, and the dismantling of racial discrimination in the payment of wages.

In August of this year, the National Union of Mineworkers, which represents 194,000 members in the gold and coal sectors, spelled out its position to the South African Chamber of Mines during contract talks. “After 50 years of struggle, our demands are still as resonant and relevant as they were in 1946, and we demand that they be addressed now.”

Sitting across the table was the Chamber, the employer body representing the large mining houses that dominate South Africa’s mining sector. These mine owners, especially those in the gold sector, faced their own challenges — in particular, escalating operating costs, low productivity and a raft of new government policies aimed at shaking up their dominance of the industry and increasing black ownership in mining ventures.

As might be expected, the negotiations were protracted and difficult, with each party holding a different perception about the economic position of the industry. But on Sept. 11, an agreement was reached granting wage increases ranging from 5% to 10.4% in the gold sector, and increases ranging from 8.3% to 13% in the coal sector, depending on conditions at the individual mines.

The agreement, because it contains a commitment to set up training programs and continue a review of the job-grading system, is being portrayed as a signal of an improving industrial relations climate within the country’s mining industry.

The mine owners gained a commitment to pursue the issue of productivity improvements, which they believe is vital to the long-term viability of the industry. This concern is a real one, particularly as many of the country’s gold mines are old, deep and slipping badly down the cost curve, whereas new, low-cost mines are being developed elsewhere in the world.

The Chamber of Mines paid tribute to its negotiating team and to the union representatives by stating that the agreement “once again underscores the impressive levels of sophistication and maturity that characterize the industrial relations climate within the South African mining industry — and which, in fact, set it apart from most industry sectors in this country.” We, too, applaud the agreement, particularly the programs aimed at stepping up training and education programs to prepare workers for greater opportunity — and greater responsibility — in South Africa’s mining industry.

We are confident that South African mining companies will find their trained and educated miners to be more motivated, productive and innovative than in the past. Change is necessary if mining is to remain a cornerstone of the South African economy in the 21st century.