Solidarity declares dispute with Kumba Iron Ore

27 June 2023

Solidarity has announced a dispute regarding salary negotiations between itself and Anglo American’s iron ore producer, Kumba Iron Ore. This follows Solidarity’s warning to the organisation last week, that negotiations will derail if Kumba continues with an offer lower than the CPI, as well as a lower offer compared to other workers. Kumba’s offer to Solidarity members will result in skilled workers subsidising increases for co-workers. The final offer from Kumba Iron Ore was consequently rejected by Solidarity members.

Kumba also offered a commitment containing a lot of contradictories to the reopening of negotiations if inflation were to rise above a certain percentage. However, the wording of the clause is so poor and misleading that it has no binding force. A similar clause was contained in the previous agreement and when increases were reviewed regarding this clause in 2022, Solidarity members received a minimal salary adjustment which was still much lower than the prevailing inflation rate.

“CPI related increases are the only thing that ensures security for Kumba’s workforce during these turbulent economic times and are also the only thing that compensates them for the value they add to the company’s success. The Northern Cape’s CPI stands at 7%. Solidarity’s members consequently insist that increases for 2023, 2024 and 2025 must be in line with that,” says Gideon du Plessis, general secretary of Solidarity.

Solidarity is of the opinion that the arrogance with which Kumba has replaced its once amiable approach to the negotiations and its reluctance to hold bilateral talks between negotiation days has led to this dispute.

“Kumba is expected to review its final offer, especially in light of the exceptionally high cost of living that its employees are currently experiencing in Kathu. It is also important that Kumba takes into account that its skilled employees in particular accepted lower increases during the Covid-19 period, while generous dividends were declared to shareholders in that same year,” Du Plessis continues.

“It is one thing for Anglo American to describe its core value as “fairness”, but as these negotiations show, it is a completely different thing to apply it. Fairness becomes impossible when your actions are guided by negotiations in bad faith and the exploitation of a certain category of your loyal workers,” concludes du Plessis.

Issued by Gideon du Plessis, General Secretary, Solidarity, 27 June 2023