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26 September, 2011
In Namibia recently, a collective agreement signed between ICEM affiliate Mine Workers’ Union of Namibia (MUN) and Namdeb Diamond Corp., the DeBeers, Namibian state joint mining venture, had the rubber stamp of a High Court order. That unusual attribute came because a month-long strike/lockout of 1,600 miners developed into a highly charged and fractious split between labour and management that had Namibia’s top political leaders nervous.
The agreement ending the strike, which began 16 August, and the lockout, beginning 20 August, came 11 days ago and was overseen by the country’s Minister of Presidential Affairs. The next day, High Court Judge Dave Smuts made the agreement a court order.
The agreement calls for the two sides to “dedicate themselves in good faith to rebuild relationships.” It calls for empowering a tripartite commission to investigate and resolve the many issues that surfaced in the hostile dispute, and the accord signed at government house in Windhoek also positively resolves the central issue behind the dispute: housing pay when a mine’s resources are spent and workers are transferred.
The dispute started when Namdeb mothballed the remote Bogenfels mine and denied workers their housing and utility allowances in transferring them to new sites. That occurred earlier this year for a small number of the 1,600 union miners, about 125, and the dispute festered with both sides hardening until industrial action started in August.
When MUN decided to conduct a strike vote, Namdeb yelled foul, saying the vote should not be open to all 1,600. That angered MUN which saw it as an overt intervention into the union’s affairs. Then during talks to resolve the strike/lockout, the company angered miners with a counter-offer granting the housing and utility allowances, but then demanded that miners pay rent in their new locales
The recent peace agreement restores to the 125 transferred workers their housing and utility entitlements, and they will not have to pay rent at their new worksites. The accord guarantees no regressions to a 2009 Work Conditions Agreement. The Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare, which worked staunchly over the past six weeks to resolve the dispute, will coordinate the reconciliation commission.
MUN called attention during to the strike the inequity in opportunities between Namibian citizens and expatriates. The union also singled out a top boss for unfairly denying Namibians jobs because he insists on using polygraph tests on applicants. And MUN has accused this same boss of safety neglect in implementing cost curtailments. Namdeb’s largest operation at Oranjemund has seen two years this year.
Diamond output by Namdeb fell off by 30,000 carats of gems during the dispute. Diamond production accounts for almost 10% of Namibia’s GDP and 40% of foreign exchange funds.
Meanwhile, a MUN branch took strike action 23 September against Rössing Uranium Ltd., 69% owned by Rio Tinto. The 950 uranium miners of the Arandis branch passed a strike authorisation vote 19 September and this is the second strike in three months against Rössing over inequitable bonus pay-outs between managers and workers. With Rio Tinto the lead company, the remainder of Rössing is owned by the Namibian government and South Africa’s Development Corp.