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Samancor Chrome, which has 1 million tpy of charge chrome production capacity in South Africa, has confirmed that two unions have started a strike at its smelter operations in the country.
It is not clear at this stage how much production is affected.
The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) are negotiating with the company over its offer to smelter workers, Samancor said.
The offer was accepted by Solidarity, another South African union, as well as the NUM and Numsa at the company’s mining operations, the company noted.
Samancor said it is still in negotiations and considers its offer fair and competitive.
“The company is continuing negotiations with both the unions in an endeavour to persuade them to accept the offer, which we believe to be fair, reasonable and competitive within the industry,” Samancor said.
“Samancor Chrome believes that industrial action is not the means to resolve matters which can rather be solved in an amicable manner by means of constructive engagement,” it added.
In October last year, Samancor sent workers home on annual leave after 400 workers staged a sit-in after the company signed wage agreements with recognised unions.
The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) started the strike following negotiations with the company over its final settlement offer, Samancor said.
The offer was accepted by Solidarity, another South African union, as well as NUM and NUMSA at the company’s mining operations, the company noted.
Janie Davies jdavies@metalbulletin.com Twitter: @janiedavies_mb