Gold miners strike for higher wages

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AP):

More than 250,000 South African gold miners went on strike yesterday, seeking higher wages and a cut of profits from soaring gold prices, a union representative said.

The National Union of Mine-workers said they expect the industrial action to halt operations at four companies, including Anglo-gold Ashanti, Harmony Gold and Goldfields.

The miners want a 14 per cent raise, Union General Secretary Frans Baleni said, because they want to see their share of the profits from high gold prices.

"Many of the commodities are doing very well, especially gold and platinum, and that is not reflected in the compensation and remuneration of these workers," he said. "And one of the biggest challenges our members have indicated to us is the inequalities we have between the top and the bottom."

The union said the striking gold miners would join more than 150,000 other miners from the coal and diamond sectors, who began striking within the last week.

Thandisizwe Jiya, a 36-year-old miner at a Goldfields mine, told The Associated Press he earns less than $600 a month.

"The salary I've got, it's little money. You can't survive with that wage ... . We have needs," he said.

The union describes miners' work as arduous and dangerous. Baleni said miners "can lose limbs and lungs, sacrificed to the dust".

South African economist Tony Twine said the strike could cost the companies up to $25 million a day in lost production, and will impact the share price of the companies involved.