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10 October, 2011
Loyal to the organisation’s motto “an injury to one is an injury to all,” 10,000 members of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) marched to the Chamber of Mines in Johannesburg in early October demanding safer working conditions.
Deadly mine accidents continue to take the lives of some around 100 South African miners each year. The 4 October demonstrators also used the occasion to remember comrades killed at work.
Several thousand mine, construction and energy sector employees downed their tools to mark the day of mourning and protest. The central business district of Johannesburg was brought to a standstill by the march to state-run electricity provider Eskom, the South African Federation of Civil Engineering Contractors, and the government departments of labour and mineral resources.
The Marchers were addressed by the Leadership of the National Union of Mineworkers, The President of the NUM and the ICEM, The General Secretary of the ICEM and the Chairman of the ICEM Mining and DGJOP Sector.
The Chamber of Mines, incidentally, joined the strike to improve national awareness over mine health and safety.
The NUM showed its might in July with a widely celebrated victory, blocking Brazilian mining group Vale’s efforts to invest in the country and to operate in the region. Vale’s anti-union behaviour throughout the world, most notably against the United Steelworkers (USW) in Canada, led NUM General Secretary Frans Baleni to describe the company as “one of the world’s leading labour exploiters” and an employer not welcome in South Africa.
Vale had long targeted base-metals mining company Metorex for its extensive copper and cobalt mining operations, and prospective growth projects, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and in Zambia. But strong NUM opposition forced Vale to withdraw their bid for Metorex on 12 July.