Kalgold strike continues

Johannesburg, South Africa — MININGREVIEW.COM — 18 January 2010 – More than 200 workers from Harmony Gold Mining Company’s Kalgold operation outside Vryburg in the Northwest province are still striking over the implementation date of a pay increase at the mine.

Revealing this in an e-mailed statement here, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) said wage negotiations had been going on for over a year with no concrete results, and the strike was continuing.

It explained that the union was demanding a 15% wage increase backdated to May, while the company had offered 10% increase from December. “The major difference is not really about the figures, it is about the implementation date,” the union said. Harmony spokeswoman Marian van der Walt couldn’t immediately comment on the strike when called by Bloomberg News.

The NUM declared a dispute over the implementation date and obtained a certificate of non-resolution to the dispute from the CCMA. “We have been left with no option but to strike until the employer comes to the table with what we are looking for. We call on Harmony Gold to deal with their contractor’’ says NUM regional organiser in the Kimberly region Bonke Motsisi.