Mine CEOs ‘paid 199 times more than workers’

via Mine CEOs ‘paid 199 times more than workers’ – DailyNews Live 9 MARCH 2014 

Platinum mining companies are paying their chief executive officers 199 times more than they are paying mineworkers, the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu ) said.

“The CEO of Lonmin, Ben Magara, was paid R6 million; Impala paid its former CEO, David Brown, R13 million; and, Anglo American Platinum paid its CEO, Chris Griffith, R17,6 million in 2013,” Amcu president Joseph Mathunjwa told members at the Union Buildings in Pretoria.

Amcu members braved the scorching sun to hand over a petition addressed to President Jacob Zuma.

The petition raised their unhappiness about how government departments and mining companies have handled their strike.

“Comrades, the mines can afford the R12 500 demand. We started with a year, and now we are saying the demand must be achieved in four years.

Still they refused. What do they want?” he asked the applauding crowd.

Amcu have been on a strike since January 23, demanding a basic monthly salary of R12 500.

The union rejected the employers’ offer for an increase of 9 percent.

The employers have rejected the union’s revised demand, saying it is unaffordable and amounts to a 30 percent increase.

Amcu revised its demand, stating that the R12 500 demand could now be achieved over four years.

Talks to resolved the strike stalled on Tuesday, when the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) ruled that the parties were too far apart.

Mathunjwa said workers themselves would decide when the strike would end.

“The members will decide about the strike,” he told reporters, pointing to hundreds of his union’s members,” he said.