Union says expects strike at Angloplat refineries

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (Reuters) -- The union representing striking South African workers at world number one platinum producer Anglo American Platinum (Angloplat) said it expected the 15-day strike to spread to the firm's refineries on Wednesday.

But Angloplat ignored the union's threat and said that it was unilaterally implementing a nine percent final wage offer rejected by the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM).

"We have gone ahead and implemented the wage offer as from today (Wednesday). The NUM did not oppose the move and we hope the striking workers will go back to work," Angloplat spokesman Mike Mtakati told Reuters.

"We are so hopeful that this will end the strike. It is a reasonable offer, it is above inflation and it reflects trends in the industry," Mtakati added.

But in a showdown with Angloplat, the NUM said it would press ahead with industrial action at the company's refineries to back its demand for a 10 percent wage increase and better working conditions.

"If the management implements its wage offer, then there will be trouble," NUM spokesman George Molebatsi said.

Earlier NUM calls for a strike at the refineries failed when workers turned up for work on Monday and Tuesday.

But Molebatsi said this was going to change on Wednesday when refinery workers were expected to join their striking colleagues.

Angloplat said the NUM had not yet responded to its wage offer, which will be paid to 43,000 employees, including those still on strike.

Around 70 percent of Angloplat workers have already agreed to the company's nine percent offer in 2000 and 2001. The NUM, which began a strike on September 18, is holding out for a 10 percent wage increase.

"A few workers started the strike at the refineries yesterday (Tuesday) and we expect more to join today (Wednesday). That is my understanding," Molebatsi told Reuters.

The NUM represents around 15,000 Angloplat employees. Angloplat says only 8,000 to 9,000 workers remained on strike, but the union has said turnout was much higher.

But Mtakati said production at the refineries was at 100 percent, indicating that the workers there were still shunning strike action.

"The members of the NUM at the processing division are still ignoring calls for a secondary strike," Mtakati said.

Molebatsi said the NUM would also hold talks with striking workers on Wednesday to discuss other measures to take against Angloplat's defiant management.

"Workers constitute the union and we will be holding talks with the workers to decide our other next steps of action," he added.

Labor analysts have said the company's move to implement the wage offer was a strategy to force the union's hand by paying its members the nine percent increase, retroactive from July 1.

The wage talks at Angloplat have proceeded during a period of soaring platinum and palladium prices.

The company recently reported a doubling in interim headline earnings to 2.611 billion rand ($376.3 million), led by surging world platinum group metal prices and a weaker rand.

Shares in Angloplat were up 20 cents, or 0.08 percent, at 266 rand on the Johannesburg bourse on Wednesday.

Spot platinum was trading at $564/572 a troy ounce.

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