‘AMCU by day, workers’ committee by night’: Insurgent Trade Unionism at Anglo Platinum (Amplats) mine, 2012–2014

Abstract

This article investigates the relationship between the workers’ committee, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) at Amplats between 2012 and 2014. Drawing from in-depth interviews with worker leaders, it explores the contestation over representation and recognition in the platinum mines during a time when workers waged historic strikes putting forward radical demands for pay increases. There has been a rocky transition (one that is incomplete) from the values and culture of the workers’ committee at Amplats to that of the union – AMCU. Gouldner's critique of Michels’ classic ‘Iron Law of Oligarchy’ provides a useful starting point from which to understand this transition as well as the contemporary mineworkers’ movement in South Africa more generally. Gouldner suggested that Michels ignored democratic impulses thereby putting forth a model which was monolithic and static rather than socially constructed and contextually specific. The article advances the concept of Insurgent Trade Unionism in order to argue that when the rank and file takes on an insurgent character, the trade union's bureaucratic or official power (at the national, regional and branch level) becomes marginal, but only relatively so in this case, as the events reveal.

Mine mechanisation and distributional conflict in rural South Africa

“…Maintaining these enclaved operations in contexts of extreme local poverty was frequently dependent, Ferguson observed, on heavy security, but had appeal to multinationals seeking to avoid complex local political entanglements. In South African PGM mining intense labour conflict (see Chinguno 2015;Sinwell 2015;Capps 2015) rising production costs and multiplying distributional pressures from government and communities have led companies to seek a more 'socially thin' operating model through mechanisation. The following sections outline the causes of this transition, and its likely consequences for mine-community relations.…”

“…After relative stability in the 2000s under the hegemony of the ANC-aligned National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), labour conflict ignited in 2011/12 as the challenger Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) amalgamated militant workers' committees demanding a R12,500 'living wage' (Sinwell, 2015;Chinguno, 2015). Violence between AMCU, NUM, mine security and police culminated in the latter's massacre of 34 striking mineworkers from Lonmin, then the world's third largest platinum producer.…”

“…Labour conflict has been severe and destabilising. Most notably, the strike wave of 2012 culminated with the Marikana massacre in which South African police shot dead 34 striking mineworkers, and the five-month strike of 2014 which was the longest in South African history (Chinguno 2015;Mnwana 2015;Sinwell 2015).…”

Evaluation of Labor Agency Strategy: The Case of a Strike at a South African Opencast Mine in 2012

“…Wildcat strikes initiated and led by RDOs on the platinum belt were successful because RDOs carry social power and historical residue to galvanize the rest of the workforce while operators at Huntington mine did not possess such (Stewart 2013, 2016). Furthermore, the game of numbers, machines, and equipment and technology constrained operators who at any point during a shift are around three hundred in the mining area in comparison with platinum mine’s thousands of workers at any point underground (see Chinguno 2015; Sinwell 2015). Wildcat strike action on the platinum belt was well organized with proper planning through worker committees (associational power in the form of grassroot structure), something that was absent at Huntington mine strike (see Sinwell 2015).…”

Resistance and repression in Zimbabwe: a case study of Zimplats mine workers

“…While there is a growing body of literature on platinum mining in other post-colonial contexts like South Africa (Benya 2015;Capps 2012;Chinguno 2015;Sinwell 2015), far less recent scholarly literature exists on platinum mining in Zimbabwe. In this article, I draw from Zimplats, one of the largest platinum mining companies in Zimbabwe.…”