President Zuma draws the line on wildcat strikes – by Martin Creamer (MiningWeekly.com – May 30, 2013)

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PRETORIA (miningweekly.com) – President Jacob Zuma on Thursday drew the line on wildcat strikes, implicitly declaring unequivocal zero tolerance on future industrial action that is outside of the law.

Announcing a new programme of action for the troubled South African mining sector, President Zuma said that Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe and three Cabinet Ministers had been tasked with restoring stability and certainty to the mining sector, which he described as an essential “cornerstone of the South African economy”.

He was emphatic that all future strikes needed to be undertaken within what he described as South Africa’s “excellent” legal framework and the Constitution (see also attached video).

“You cannot allow the unions to engage in wildcat strikes,” he said in response to global news agency Reuters’ question on dealing with what was described as “the turf war” between the emerging Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) and the long-standing National Union of Mineworkers.

Leeway had recently been given to AMCU on the grounds of its inexperience.

“We appreciate, for example, that AMCU may be a new union that is trying to grapple with these issues, and that’s why we are engaging them,” President Zuma explained, adding that the approach of the government was to remain neutral during the current period of union rivalry.

“We’re not taking sides in anything,” the President said, calling on parties to recognise the impact of the industrial relations environment on jobs and development during the upcoming wage negotiations.

“We call for fair and expeditious settlements,” he said of wage negotiations.

He urged business, labour and government to continue to engage constructively.

“Everything we do must be designed to strengthen and stabilise the sector, and ensure that it serves all stakeholders – the investors and owners, workers, government and the broader society,” he told the special briefing session, called to remonstrate against South Africa’s worrying below-par gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate of 0.9% for the first quarter of 2013.

The figure indicated the urgent need for the country to strengthen its economic performance and increase the rate of investment.

To make up, growth in the remaining three quarters of 2013 would need to be substantially higher in order to hit the already-lowered 2.7% growth rate projected for the year.

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