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28 June, 2010
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the South African state-run utility Eskom inched closer to a new labour accord for 28,000 workers last week in bargaining coordinated by the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation, and Arbitration (CCMA). Even though the CCMA issued a certificate of non-resolution following talks late on 24 June, the two sides were not far apart on wages and differences over the elusive year-long issue of housing allocation for workers also narrowed.
The NUM did set a deadline for tomorrow, 29 June, for the company to make further movement, but the threat of a disruptive strike was diminished by movement made in CCMA talks. Two other unions are also involved in the negotiations, including the ICEM-affiliated National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), but ICEM’s second largest global affiliate – the NUM – represents the greatest number of workers at Eskom, 16,000.
Management at Eskom has maintained that a strike would be illegal because a court decision on 25 May ruled the utility an essential national service. But workers have kept the strike option open, and the NUM said it would back rank-and-file staff if they decided to walk off jobs at electric generating facilities, power plants, and administrative servicing centres.
At a press briefing on 25 June, the NUM rejected compulsory arbitration and suggested that the narrow differences between the two sides can be resolved in mediated talks early this week.
The company has increased its wage offer from 4% to 8% in June talks, while the unions have brought their original wage demands down to 9%. The unions are seeking a housing allowance of R4,000 per month, while Eskom is proposing a 5.6% increase in certain benefit allowances, as well as a one-off R12,000 payment, to be made in two equal pay-outs in July 2010 and July 2011.