Sibanye Stillwater Ltd. The largest mining unions voted to strike in their gold business until their wage demands were met, one group said after a collective meeting of its members.
The National Union of miners, the miners' Association and the Construction Union, UASA and Solidarity met in Carltonville, about 79 km southwest of Johannesburg, to discuss pay negotiations.
NUM spokesman Livhuwani Mammburu said members rejected Sibanye's latest proposal to increase monthly salary by 700rand ($46) a year for three years and asked for an increase of 1000 rand over the same period. He said the start of the strike has not yet been decided, but will take place after Monday's notice.
NUM and AMCU, the largest unions in the gold industry, have long competed with each other and sometimes clashed violently in their struggle for or retention of membership. Along with two other groups, they asked for an additional 1500 rand a month in September, which Sibanye called unaffordable and said it would lead to early closure of the mine. At the beginning of this year, labor groups obtained strike certificates.
Sibanye's Beatrix, Driefontein and Kloof mines employ about 31000 workers, and the industry struggles to control costs in the geological challenges of the world's deepest mines.
