JOHANNESBURG--Lonmin PLC (LNMIY, LMI.LN) said Thursday that it
presented a wage offer to striking employees who will report back
Friday, declining to give more details on the amount.
The strike started Aug. 10, when 3,000 rock drillers put down
their tools at Lonmin's Marikana mine. Workers clashed in the
following days, resulting in 10 deaths. On Aug. 16, police fired
into a crowd of protesters, killing another 34 people. Another body
was found Tuesday.
Workers at the mine say they won't return to work until they get
a wage increase to 12,500 rand a month, almost triple what many say
they're making now after deductions. To bring the five week strike
to an end, Lonmin said it would engage on the workers demands. The
meeting with all union and worker delegations started Thursday
morning. Lonmin has lost more than 50,000 troy ounces of platinum
production and is under pressure to meet debt obligations which
will be reviewed at the end of the month.
"Following negotiations today, Lonmin has presented an offer to
the employee delegate. The offer will be communicated to employees
at the hill where they have been waiting for feedback before
negotiations continue again tomorrow," Lonmin said in a
statement.
At the heart of many of the strikes are worker grievances over
pay and the slow pace of change at mines since the end of apartheid
almost two decades ago. Amid that discord, the emerging Association
of Mineworkers and Construction Union has been recruiting at mines
with promises to get workers higher pay. That has sparked clashes
with the country's largest mine union, the National Union of
Mineworkers, an ally of the country's ruling African National
Congress.
The strike has since spread to other mines. The latest incident
came Wednesday when more than 1,000 protesters blocked the entrance
to Anglo American Platinum Ltd.'s (AGPPY, AMS.JO) mines in
Rustenburg. The company subsequently shut five mines, accounting
for about a third of its output. Workers there Thursday presented a
memorandum to mine management for a wage increase to ZAR16,070 a
month.
Write Devon Maylie at devon.maylie@dowjones.com
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