Assessment of the profit sharing schemes on certain Chamber Gold Mines, July-December 1992
Item
- Title
- Assessment of the profit sharing schemes on certain Chamber Gold Mines, July-December 1992
- Date
- 1992
- Description
- In 1991 and 1992, the NUM accepted basic wage increases on the gold mines that were far below the annual inflation rate because of the crisis in the industry. The priority of the union was to preserve employment. But this left the door wide open for rich mines (like Kloof, Elandsrand and Vaal Reefs) to hide behind the low increases that are set in the Chamber negotiations at levels that Free gold, BuffeIsfontein and marginal mines can live with. The NUM decided that workers need a way of adding more money onto their wages If the mines can afford to pay more. The ideal is for a national wage policy in which the richer mines can help the poorer mines to pay the same wages. But this will mean new tax laws, new ownership rules and a new government to force it all through. Right now, the union needs a special policy for collective bargaining in an industry that is in long term decline. The economy is not growing, few new mines are opening, so workers who get retrenched are threatened with starvation. NUM has already accepted a reduction in real wage standards to slow down the speed at which mines are contracting.
- Language
- English
- Subject
- Wages—Gold miners—South Africa
- National Union of Mineworkers
- Collective bargaining—Mining industry—South Africa
- Gold mines and mining—Economic aspects—South Africa
- Concession bargaining—South Africa
- Mineral industries—South Africa—Economic conditions
- Unemployment—South Africa—Prevention
- Type
- text
- Extent
- 18 pages
- Format
- Provenance
- The item is held at the Cory Library for Humanities Research, Rhodes University, on behalf of the Labour Research Service
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10962/106577
- useGuidelines
- The materials are made available explicitly for research and educational purposes. Any use of these materials must be cleared with the Labour Research Service.
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