Unlikely striking Sibanye Stillwater workers will get wage demand: Analyst

Labour analyst Andrew Levy says it doesn’t look like Sibanye Stillwater striking mineworkers would get what they’re demanding, in a wage dispute that has now entered the third month.

Striking mineworkers believed to be Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) and NUM members, on Sunday booed President Cyril Ramaphosa and reportedly told him to leave a National Union of Mineworkers (Cosatu) May Day rally.

The workers are demanding a R1 000 a month wage increase, while the company has only increased its offer to R850.

Sibanye Stillwater increases wage offer:

Levy says that compromise is needed in wage negotiations.

“The workers of Sibanye Stillwater are angry and frustrated, they’ve been on strike for three months. This is a strike that they will not win, and the one thing we know about strikes is that all strikes come to an end sooner or later, and they end with compromises. I don’t see any compromise forthcoming from the union side. So, clearly they will put whatever pressure they can, whenever they can,” says Levy.

President Ramaphosa abandons Cosatu’s May Day rally as event descends into chaos: