South Africa Union to Strike, Hitting Platinum, Coal (Update1)
By Antony Sguazzin
June 5 (Bloomberg) -- South Africa's biggest labor union, the National Union of Mineworkers, said it plans to join a strike by state employees in an action that may close the world's biggest platinum and chrome mines.
The NUM, based in Johannesburg, has 280,000 members who also work at some of the world's largest gold and coal operations as well as in construction.
``We are mobilizing our members for a huge strike action,'' Frans Baleni, NUM's general secretary, said today in a statement. ``We believe the demands are noble.''
The union is currently talking to its lawyers in preparation for giving an official seven days' notice before starting the strike, Baleni said in an interview.
South Africa is the world's biggest producer of platinum, gold and chrome. It's also the biggest supplier of coal to European power stations.
To contact the reporter on this story: Antony Sguazzin in Johannesburg at asguazzin@bloomberg.net .
