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Platinum union declares end to South Africa's longest strike
President of South Africa's Association of Mine workers and Construction Union (AMCU) Joseph Mathunjwa (C) sings before addressing the Lonmin strikers at the Wonderkop stadium in Nkaneng township outside the Lonmin mine in Rustenburg May 14, 2014. PHOTO BY REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko
By Zandi Shabalala
23/06/2014
RUSTENBURG South Africa (Reuters) - South Africa's AMCU union declared a five-month platinum strike "officially over" on Monday as thousands of miners roared their approval when leader Joseph Mathunjwa asked if they wanted to end the longest work stoppage in the country's history.
"Yes! Yes," the miners chorused as the union boss asked whether they wanted to accept the wage offers from producers.
"The strike is officially over," Mathunjwa then shouted back, to unrestrained jubilation from the tens of thousands of workers packed into Rustenburg's Royal Bafokeng Stadium, one of the venues of the 2010 soccer World Cup.
The spot price of platinum fell 1 percent, the rand firmed slightly against the dollar and the London-listed shares of number three producer Lonmin rose nearly 5 percent.
The Johannesburg stock market, where the other two producers Anglo American Platinum and Impala Platinum are listed, had closed by the time Mathunjwa finished his speech, but their shares closed up 1.6 percent and 1.1 percent respectively.
Mathunjwa said wage deals would be signed on Tuesday and workers would start reporting for duty the following day, ending industrial action that had started on Jan. 23 - five months and two days ago.
AMCU had been demanding that basic wages be more than doubled to 12,500 rand ($1,200) a month, but in the end they settled for three-year deals that amount to monthly increases of around 20 percent, or 1,000 rand.
Marred at times by violence, the strike hit 40 percent of global production of platinum, a precious metal used in jewellery and for emissions-capping catalytic converters in automobiles.
The stoppage also dragged Africa's most advanced economy into contraction in the first quarter and cost the companies almost 24 billion rand ($2.25 billion) in lost revenue, according to an online tally run by the three firms (http://www.platinumwagenegotiations.co.za/.)
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