Biggest Platinum Producer Dodges Strike Bullet With Pay Pact
- South African platinum miners sign wage deal without strike
- Improving labor relations a key issue for avoiding junk rating
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From being the Achilles’ heel that often chokes South Africa’s economy, labor relations on the country’s mines are improving and may help the country in its bid to avoid its credit rating being cut to junk later this year.
The world’s three biggest platinum producers -- Anglo American Platinum Ltd., Impala Platinum Ltd. and Lonmin Plc -- all reached three-year wage agreements with the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union in the past week without losing one day to a strike. That’s a far cry from 2014, when the AMCU shut down the industry for five months, the longest strike in the nation’s history.