Amplats considers shutting down mines

XennoX said:
The majority of the respondents in this thread have blinkers on. Shutting down our mines will have disastrous effects on not just the workforce employed by the mines, but with all the other companies that provide services and products to the mines and then to the rest of the companies in tiers below. My company will be hit hard as Amplats is our largest client, with Lonmin and Impala being large contributors to our revenue stream as well. You've got other contractors that perform maintenance on the mines, new installations and provide other supporting services. What about them? They're not part of the problem, yet they'll be negatively affected to. If such a closure happens, you're looking at losing far more than 70 000 jobs, I'd guess somewhere in the region of 150 000 employees will be left without jobs, from the mines and it's supporting companies alone. I hope you guys can sleep well in your deluded smugness that closing down the mines is a good idea and what this country needs (or what it deserves).

The unions need to be dealt with, but closing the mines down is not the way to go. This is a complex problem and a linear solution will not solve it.
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That's actually a very good point, people who don't deserve to lose their jobs will be nailed as well unless their companies can find other clients.... Quite an ethical dilemma, give the miners and union bosses what they deserve, I.E miners lynching the bosses, and not having a job. Short of closing the mines (remembering they are at the core of the SA economy) I think mechanization is currently the only alternative short of bringing in Chinese laborers
 
Not good news and quite a ripple effect.

Time to invest in alternative labour force ?
 
This is scary, as much as I want to say let them learn a lesson, it is not just the workers that will suffer. Last year's strikes caused a big retrenchment drive at Mr Mila's company. The mining division had to reduce the people by 35%-40%.

If this continues more people will be out of work.

These strikes have little to none to do with wages.
 
SA Pty Ltd cannot afford to have these mines closed down. Time for our spineless cANCer government to step in. If the companies agree to the demands AMCU will only grow stronger and it will spread to all sectors accross SA.
 
Now why would the cANCer purposely irritate the organizations that keep them in power?
 
I think the damage is done, we are just not seeing it yet. Very soon the supporting companies will have to begin retrenching people, investor confidence is gone (I certainly would not invest in mining stock, the risk vs reward is just not worthwhile anymore).

If the mines do shut down the pain and recovery will take longer but make no mistake we are all going to feel this. Does not matter if you are directly reliant on the mine or not.
 
Segg said:
Now why would the cANCer purposely irritate the organizations that keep them in power?
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They would probably like to do so but with elections upon the horizon they're in a corner. It is unlikely these miners will vote for the ANC in any case but most of them will probably just not vote, so if the ANC upsets them they might just vote against the ANC and the ANC wouldn't want that.
 
XennoX said:
The majority of the respondents in this thread have blinkers on. Shutting down our mines will have disastrous effects on not just the workforce employed by the mines, but with all the other companies that provide services and products to the mines and then to the rest of the companies in tiers below. My company will be hit hard as Amplats is our largest client, with Lonmin and Impala being large contributors to our revenue stream as well. You've got other contractors that perform maintenance on the mines, new installations and provide other supporting services. What about them? They're not part of the problem, yet they'll be negatively affected to. If such a closure happens, you're looking at losing far more than 70 000 jobs, I'd guess somewhere in the region of 150 000 employees will be left without jobs, from the mines and it's supporting companies alone. I hope you guys can sleep well in your deluded smugness that closing down the mines is a good idea and what this country needs (or what it deserves).

The unions need to be dealt with, but closing the mines down is not the way to go. This is a complex problem and a linear solution will not solve it.
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I have to agree with this.

My gardener's brother is a worker at one of the mines, he says that it is pure hell for them at the moment, his brother has asked him for money for several months and is now looking for alternative employment.
He is a qualified boilermaker, was offered a job at minimum wage here in Pretoria and is considering taking it as he has few alternatives left.

Another thing not being considered is that thousands will be moving to different/bigger cities in the hope of finding job.

Putting my tinfoil hat on I wonder if this has not been orchestrated so that some 3'rd party can buy the mines for next to nothing.
 
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AstroTurf said:
Putting my tinfoil hat on I wonder if this has not been orchestrated so that some 3'rd party can buy the mines for next to nothing.
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I almost want to ask; what would be the point?

Unless they have some magical way of changing the labour dynamics in a short span of time, or they're so highly connected that government will pretty much ignore mineral rights restrictions and other associated red tape, then they'll just have the same problems. To be honest I'd rather have a big company struggle than an upstart.
 
CR34M3 said:
I almost want to ask; what would be the point?

Unless they have some magical way of changing the labour dynamics in a short span of time, or they're so highly connected that government will pretty much ignore mineral rights restrictions and other associated red tape, then they'll just have the same problems. To be honest I'd rather have a big company struggle than an upstart.
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<tinfoil hat>

  1. ANC gets 67%+ of the vote[sup]1[/sup].
  2. ANC amends or abolishes the current labour laws with regards to Unions and/or strikes.
  3. Current draft amendments to land rights, gets pushed through allowing the government to become the custodian of the lands without paying a cent for it.
  4. ANC establishes a mining company, exploits the workers. They have no recourse because the party they probably voted for amended the laws to **** them in the asses.

[sup]1[/sup] Whether by true voting or rigging.

</tinfoil hat>
 
XennoX said:
<tinfoil hat>

  1. ANC gets 67%+ of the vote[sup]1[/sup].
  2. ANC amends or abolishes the current labour laws with regards to Unions and/or strikes.
  3. Current draft amendments to land rights, gets pushed through allowing the government to become the custodian of the lands without paying a cent for it.
  4. ANC establishes a mining company, exploits the workers. They have no recourse because the party they probably voted for amended the laws to **** them in the asses.

[sup]1[/sup] Whether by true voting or rigging.

</tinfoil hat>
Click to expand...

Hehe :D , I can see this being the gameplan but failing spectacularly in the end. One does not simply take about the right to strike from a miner.
 
It's not only the mines, the results of the rather disasterous ANC governance is already felt in other industries too.

Still, Zuma doesn't care ..
 
CR34M3 said:
I almost want to ask; what would be the point?

Unless they have some magical way of changing the labour dynamics in a short span of time, or they're so highly connected that government will pretty much ignore mineral rights restrictions and other associated red tape, then they'll just have the same problems. To be honest I'd rather have a big company struggle than an upstart.
Click to expand...

Was thinking more in the lines of indirectly politically/union affiliated large company or organisation backing this from behind the curtains.

Could even be a stupid as an eff affiliation.
 
What a world we live in where the freedom fighters that brought democracy to the country are too terrified to take a hard stance against a spin-off union.

I think the ANC is a little nervous to gauge the real mood of the working class.

Where is our Thatcher when we need one?
 
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