Union That Disrupted S. African Mining Faces Deregistration
- Labor registrar says AMCU ‘is not a genuine trade union’
- Union is preparing for platinum-industry wage talks this year
AMCU members
Photographer: Phill Magakoe/AFP via Getty Images
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South Africa’s Labor Department said it intends to deregister one of the country’s biggest and most aggressive mining unions, just weeks before crucial platinum-industry wage talks are expected to begin.
A relative upstart compared with the more-established National Union of Mineworkers, the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union has shaken up the country’s mining industry over the past decade. It gained prominence in a dispute at Lonmin Plc that culminated in police massacring 34 people at a protest in 2012, after which it took on increasing influence and membership, later leading a five-month industry-wide platinum strike.