NUM condemns Impala Platinum and demands dismissal of two officials
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) strongly condemns Impala Platinum which was some weeks ago crowned "Worst employer of the year" by the NUM congress for conniving with AMCU against its members.
The NUM demands that Impala must fire two of its employees who are at the centre of the fights over membership of trade unions at its operations viz. Mr Humphrey Oliphant whom the company had hired on a fixed term contract and Gavin Hartford who on the basis of a soured relationship with the union stand accused of favouring and promoting a rival union.
The NUM has totally objected to the company appointing Mr Hartford to investigate the problems behind the illegal strike that took place at Implats and appealed to Implats to get someone independent. Implats went ahead to do as it wishes. The Implats shareholders should know that the company will never recover from the collapse of the ER systems as long as the two men stick their noses in its operations. The NUM maintains that Impala can only succeed in its industrial relations and productivity once it get rid of the two who are at the centre of the storm at its operations.
"We demand that Impala Platinum should as a matter of urgency fire the two guys in order to restore industrial relations at its operations" says Eddie Majadibodu, the NUM ‘s chief Negotiator at Implants. We further demand that the Impala management must implement the 2011/ 2013 wage agreement and make sure that all workers get their increase on 22 April 2012 for Union Men and Miners, 1st June 2012 for officials and 1st July 2012 for daily paid and staff. The increase given by management to address the strike was done unilaterally as a crises management intervention and has nothing to do with the wage agreement signed jointly between Impala management and the NUM.
All the Impala workers expects to get their normal increases as agreed and nothing less. We further call on our members to remain calm because the NUM is the only union which represents their interests. Violent provocateurs will never succeed to remove the NUM from Impala and any other mine within the platinum sector. The NUM knows that recruiting members through violent means has never lasted just as we know that lies never last longer , concludes Eddie Majadibodu.
Statement issued by Eddie Majadibodu, NUM Chief Negotiator, June 25 2012
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