The timing, duration and intensity of the long strike on the platinum belt were fuelled by a familiar South African problem: persistent and very high inequality.
Gilad Isaacs
Opinion | 1 July 2014
Gilad Isaacs underestimates the scale of AMCU's victory. His analysis offers an indicator of winner/loser based on contrasting the final settlement with the initial demand and initial offer. But this is arbitrary.
Peter Alexander
Opinion | 30 June 2014
Every morning at the TCI Apparel factory in Epping, shop steward Mymoena Williams writes down the names of the textile workers who arrive late. In this notebook are entire pages filled with employees being late for the same reason: the trains.
Joy Shan
News | 30 June 2014
The South African economy is facing a rocky period. But don’t blame the platinum strike or the union or workers involved. That labour dispute was a symptom, not the cause, of problems that had developed outside of the control of the workers.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 30 June 2014
After the historic five-month long platinum strike, mineworkers and corporate executives are retreating to their tin shacks and BMWs respectively. The country is left wondering: who won?
What the increases mean for the lives of the workers and the fortunes of the platinum producers is difficult to quantify. However, it is possible to compare the implications – for workers and company costs – of the various offers, demands and the final settlement.
Gilad Isaacs
Analysis | 26 June 2014
The platinum strike has correctly been categorised as a national crisis, but it is only one aspect of a much more severe crisis that confronts the country. This was highlighted on Tuesday by President Jacob Zuma in his State of the Nation (SoNA) address in which he stressed the economy.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 23 June 2014
Robertson fruit farm workers have taken their employer to Labour Court this week to fight for their right to strike and to get their jobs back after being dismissed more than a year ago.
Yazeed Kamaldien
News | 20 June 2014
More than 8.5 million people are receiving payments from the Unemployment Insurance Fund. If a bill before parliament’s labour committee is passed, benefits could be extended to a year.
GroundUp Staff
News | 17 June 2014
Gwede Mantashe, former chairman of the SA Communist Party, former general secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and now the powerful secretary-general of the governing ANC, sounded furious this week. In what must qualify as the most ironic case of “we’ve heard all that before”, he blamed the platinum belt strike and the consequent crisis on “white foreigners”.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 13 June 2014
The recent allegations of financial impropriety in the upper ranks of the SA Municipal Workers’ Union are only the latest in a string of similar scandals over the years. And it is little wonder that these have erupted, for many trade unions have transformed themselves into bureaucratic organisations with business links.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 11 June 2014
Like any good question, the answer to whether the platinum producers can afford the demands made by striking workers is: “it depends”.
Gilad Isaacs
Opinion | 9 June 2014
Misunderstanding and confusion about the platinum sector pay issue persists. And much of the media is to blame for repeating, without analysis, the public relations spin of the mining companies.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 2 June 2014
North West province mineworkers striking for better salaries are lobbying with the power of film to gain support for their cause countrywide.
Yazeed Kamaldien
News | 29 May 2014
Already hit by drought, small farmers in the Upington area will now have to pay fees to graze their animals on common land.
Selby Nomnganga
News | 29 May 2014
For all the special pleading by the major teachers’ union, Sadtu and the assertions by basic education minister Angie Motshekga that all is well, our schooling system is in crisis.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 26 May 2014
Tracey Davies explains how the Batlhabine community fought back against a mining company that ignored the law. She also argues that the Department of Mineral Resources should have done more to help.
Tracey Davies
Opinion | 20 May 2014