Anglo American’s Kumba negotiates in bad faith; gives rise to dispute
21 June 2023
Solidarity announced that salary negotiations between itself, Anglo American’s iron ore producer Kumba Iron Ore, and the mining unions NUM and Amcu are giving rise to a dispute. The fifth and final round of negotiations began to derail on 19 June due to Kumba’s inexplicable positioning.
According to Solidarity, trade unions took a pragmatic stance from the outset given Kumba’s positive financial year results and generous dividends declared, and presented a CPI-related increase as a win-win settlement. Many employment-related demands were also dropped to speed up the settlement, while Kumba, on the other hand, complicated the negotiations.
“Kumba started pleading poverty from the third round and predicted a dark and uncertain future for the mining company over the next three years. The company is not inclined to offer CPI-related increases for their employees,” said Solidarity General Secretary Gideon du Plessis. “It is also strange that as a final offer for the first year of the agreement, Kumba offers four different percentage increases, which are predominantly lower than the average CPI, to the respective job categories, and also three different percentage increases for the second and third years of the agreement. What Kumba offers is not only illogical; it also divides and demotivates its workforce.”
In addition, Kumba offered a contradictory worded commitment to the reopening of negotiations if inflation were to rise above a certain percentage. According to Du Plessis, the wording of the clause is so weak that it has no binding force.
“It is a shame that Kumba cannot follow Anglo American’s (Amplats’s) progressive negotiation model of 2022. Amplats and mining unions reached a five-year agreement in which increases grow upwards towards the end of the agreement, and skilled workers’ increases from year one to five are as follows: 6% / 6% / 6% / 6,5% / 6,5%. In contrast, Kumba only offers a three-year agreement with a downward sliding scale where the increases of skilled workers on the upper scales are as follows: 6,5% / 5,5% / 5% with a refusal to link salaries to the prevailing CPI,” says Du Plessis.
Solidarity is of the opinion that Kumba is beginning to follow the route of negotiating in bad faith, and that the company has replaced its once good-natured approach with arrogance.
“Kumba must commit to CPI-related increases to finalise the negotiations, to ensure labour peace and to increase their workforce’s motivation. Solidarity and the other unions will take Kumba’s final offer to their members for consideration, but expect that rejection of the final offer and a dispute process will likely be the outcome.
“Solidarity appeals to Kumba not to turn away the trade unions’ hand of good faith extended to the company and not to force the parties into a dispute process. It also would be in its interest to look after its workers due to the extremely high cost of living experienced by workers in the Kathu area and low increases that especially skilled workers had agreed to during the Covid-19 period,” Du Plessis concluded.
Issued by Gideon du Plessis, General Secretary: Solidarity Strategic Institute (SSI), 21 June 2023
