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Africa's Largest Stainless Steel Mill Facing a Strike Over Pay, Union Says
Africa’s largest stainless steel mill, run by a unit of Spain’s Acerinox SA, is facing a strike over pay after two South African labor unions rejected the company’s latest wage offer.
Workers at Columbus Stainless Pty Ltd., based in South Africa’s Mpumalanga province, are set to go on strike after the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa issued the company with a strike notice, Columbus said in an e-mailed statement today.
That came after the Solidarity union earlier declared a dispute with the company after wage talks failed. Solidarity’s members “must now decide whether they want to strike,” the union said. “The voting process is already under way.”
Acerinox wants to keep any pay increase within the terms of a five-year wage agreement signed in July 2008, company spokesman Juan Garcia said by phone from Madrid today. “We consider that it’s not only in our interest, but in South Africa’s social and economic interest.”
Solidarity wants a 10 percent increase for its workers, while NUMSA, as the union is known, is calling for 8 percent, said Columbus, which is offering an average of 5.5 percent. South Africa’s inflation rate fell to 3.7 percent in July from 4.2 percent a month earlier.
Contingency plans have been put in place to ensure that supplies of stainless steel aren’t affected by the strike, Columbus Chief Executive Officer Dave Martin said today.
Acerinox owns a 76 percent stake in Columbus, which exports to the U.S., Europe, the Middle East and Asia, while Samancor, a joint venture between Anglo American Plc and BHP Billiton Ltd., also has a stake in the South African steelmaker.
To contact the reporter on this story: Thomas Biesheuvel in London at tbiesheuvel@bloomberg.net
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