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11 December, 2006
Some 600 members of ICEM affiliate National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) in South African struck gold acquisition and producing company Centurion Gold Holdings Inc. in Germiston, near Johannesburg, on 7 December. Several hundred miners at the company’s Primrose mine and ore processing plant went on strike because management reneged on a pledge to keep all standing agreements intact from a previous employer, according to the South African Press Association.
Miners are also seeking a doubling of their salaries. Miners at the Primrose mine are some of the lowest paid in the Central Rand gold belt, with monthly salaries totalling only R1,000 per month. Since Johannesburg-based Centurion bought the mine and processing plant from privately-held Glencairn Mining Co. in February 2004, the company has doubled production and has begun processing ore at Primrose from two other gold mines it owns in South Africa.
The company has refused to bargain with the NUM branch union over conditions, and a union spokesman said the NUM has taken the matter to South Africa’s labour courts. Miners have seen a rollback in the number of annual leave days that they received under Glencairn, as well as a death benefit, and other working conditions have worsened as well.
Centurion has indicated it would evict strikers from company-owned hostels, and the NUM is petitioning the courts to prevent that. The NUM national Executive Committee, meeting on Friday, 8 December, gave the strike and Centurion’s callous behaviour over union recognition and inferior work conditions its full attention.
Centurion was formed in 2003 to acquire and operate mine properties in South Africa and elsewhere. The company boosts that it was formed to “exploit” South African legislation passed in 2004 that cedes mining claims back to the public trust if they go undeveloped within a designated time frame.
The company, publicly traded in the US, carries out prospecting and development of mining lands. Besides Primrose, it operates the Omaruru gold mine in Mpumulanga, the Sellies gold mine near Johannesburg, as well as a chrome-bearing mining operation. It is also currently involved in development of the Naboom platinum project in South Africa.