JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – London- and Johannesburg-listed platinum mining company Lonmin will be "strongly opposing" the urgent interdict that the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) will be bringing against it and the other platinum majors in the Labour Court this morning.

The aim of the interdict is to stop platinum-mining companies Lonmin, Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) and Impala Platinum (Implats) from communicating directly with AMCU members about their wage offer - and also to put a end to the surveys the companies carry out on the views of their employees.

“We will strongly oppose AMCU’s application,” said Lonmin CEO Ben Magara, adding that the company’s actions in communicating with its own employees was in no way a contravention of the Labour Relations Act nor against any recognition agreements or any employee constitutional rights.

The three platinum producers last month took their offer of minimum entry-level pay of R12 500 a month by 2017 directly to employees, in an attempt to end the strike.

Lonmin, he said, could not understand AMCU’s objection to it communicating with its own employees using the information technology of the modern world.

“Our employees became our employees first, and then members of the union second. Without being our employees they would not be members of AMCU.

“We have a right and indeed a duty to engage with our employees and they deserve to hear it from us, their employers,” Magara said.

Lonmin wanted to ensure that employees were fully informed of the offer and that they were empowered to accept or reject that offer of their own free will.

AMCU leadership had repeatedly indicated that the union would act in accordance with the mandate given it by its members, who were Lonmin employees.

“We say, clearly, therefore, let’s really listen to those employees and your members, AMCU, and let’s listen to them together, because what they are telling us in their thousands is very different to what AMCU appears to be hearing from its members.

“No one is winning with this strike and again we ask, who is benefitting from this strike? There has to be a way forward and there is only one way forward.

“I want to reiterate this, particularly as a commitment from Lonmin, but also on behalf of the producers, that first prize for us remains a negotiated settlement with AMCU, our majority union,” Magara added.

The strike has now cost Lonmin a third of its production for the year.

In total to date, Lonmin, Amplats and Implats have lost R18.5-billion and 80 000 striking workers have lost R8.3-billion.

AMCU’s provision of a strike fund of R1-million amounts to something as meagre as R14 a month for each employee on strike right now.

The real hardship of the local communities, the full effect of the detrimental impact on the economy and the depth of the tear in the social fabric of the Rustenburg platinum belt have still to be fully assessed.