| Nationwide strike looms over Skorpion Zinc |
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| Written by Staff Reporters | |
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The Mineworkers Union of Namibia this week threatened to mobilise a nationwide strike in solidarity with workers at Anglo American PLC’s Skorpion Zinc Mine, the country’s biggest zinc mine, who have been pushing for wage and salary increases since early this month.
“The National Executive Committee, at its special meeting on 24 May,
debated on the matter and concluded to put its members countrywide at
maximum alert for a national strike in support of the current strike at
Skorpion Zinc mine,” Joseph Hengari, general-secretary of the union,
told reported in Windhoek on Tuesday.
He said the union was responding to an incident, over the weekend, in which security guards from Skorpion fired rubber bullets to disperse about 50 workers who were protesting the move by the mine’s management to lock all miners out of its compound. The mineworkers, who have been on strike since May 10, are holding out for a 14% pay increase -- and housing, transport and overtime allowances, while the mine has offered a 10% across the board increment minus the allowances. The miners said they last received a salary increment of seven percent in October 2005. Last week, the union decided to suspend the strike to allow for negotiation. But on Friday afternoon, when a shift of mineworkers reported for duty, it found the mine premises locked off; in a move the union said was meant to enforce a resolve on the long-standing wage dispute. “We are calling upon peace-loving Namibians, sister unions and sympathisers to give their unwavering support to our plight,” said Hengari. The state-of-the-art open pit mine, owned by Anglo Base Metal and situated 25 kilometres north of the mining town of Rosh Pinah in southern Namibia, produces 150 000 tonnes of special high grade (SHG) zinc per annum destined for the Asian, European and North American markets. Michaeleno Kadhikwa of the union’s Skorpion Zinc branch, said that the mine’s management had now mobilised office and clerical workers to do the striking miners’ jobs following a failed bid to bring in casual workers. “This only shows that the management is negotiating in bad taste,” he said. |
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