Amplats Workers Strike to Protest Planned Job Cuts

Reuters reported that to protest job cuts announced last month, fewer than one in five workers showed up for work today at Anglo American Platinum Ltd.’s (LSE:AAL) platinum mines near Rustenburg. The company has confirmed that the strike is legal.

As quoted in the market news:

Friday’s action is legal and in keeping with a change of tactics by AMCU [Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union], which was behind a wave of wildcat strikes that rocked South Africa’s gold and platinum sectors last year and drove Amplats into the red.

A National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) gold miners’ strike in September lasted only three days, raising hopes that stoppages in other sectors may not be protracted. But AMCU is unhappy with the 8-percent gold miners’ pay hikes and may call further action.

AMCU, which emerged as the dominant union on the platinum belt after wresting tens of thousands of members from the once unrivalled NUM in a vicious turf war, is now generally playing by the rules.

Click here to read the full Reuters report.