2012 Wildcat Strikes
On 10 August 2012, thousands of NUM members began a series of wildcat strikes at Lonmin's Marikana mines linked to demands for increased pay. The following day, NUM leaders allegedly opened fire on striking NUM members who were marching to their offices to demand support from their union - an incident now acknowledge as the first violent incident during the strikes. It is said in the media that the killing of two striking miners was a central reason for the breakdown in trust within the union amongst workers. In a submission to the Farlam Commission, NUM has said that lethal force on this day was justified.
It is estimated that between the 12th and the 14th of August about nine people (at least four miners, two police officers and two security guards) were killed in the area around Marikana - though there is conflicting reports on who killed whom during these dates.
On 16 August, police opened fire on a group of miners who had gathered on a hill near Nkaneng,at least 34 people were killed at Marikana, 78 were injured and 259 were arrested. The miners were carrying machetes and had refused a request to disarm. According to the Congress of South African Trade Unions, police had first used tear gas, water cannons and then used "live ammunition". The killings have been labelled a massacre throughout the media with police, Lonmin and NUM itself being blamed.
Revelations on the incident starting with academic investigations and then followed up by reporting by Greg Marinovich has shown that most of the killings happened off camera many minutes after some of the murders were recorded on television.
According to the New York Times, "Frans Baleni, general secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers, defended the police in an interview with Kaya FM, a radio station" saying that "The police were patient, but these people were extremely armed with dangerous weapons."
The shooting was one of the worst by the South African authorities since the end of the apartheid era in South Africa. Baleni and other NUM officials have also accused 'third forces' of being behind the Marikana strikes.
Read more about this topic: National Union Of Mineworkers (South Africa)
Famous quotes containing the words wildcat strikes, wildcat and/or strikes:
“The worker can unionize, go out on strike; mothers are divided from each other in homes, tied to their children by compassionate bonds; our wildcat strikes have most often taken the form of physical or mental breakdown.”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)
“The worker can unionize, go out on strike; mothers are divided from each other in homes, tied to their children by compassionate bonds; our wildcat strikes have most often taken the form of physical or mental breakdown.”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)
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—Pamela Patrick Novotny (20th century)