Modern Quarrying October-November 2017

SUPPLIER SPOTLIGHT POT IGHT ON BRICKMAKING TECHNICAL PAPER BEL CONVEYOR SYSTEMS

Century – Part I

of big companies which had taken over most of the claims. The Mining Act of 1883 gave these employers far reaching rights, including the principle of job reservation which remained in the South African mining leg- islation under the Union Mines andWorks Act in 1911. The De Beers Consolidated Mine, in the climate of the legislation, forced all workers, except managers, to work in overalls, and to take off all cloth- ing in change houses at the end of their shifts where they were searched for hid- den diamonds. Employees embarked on a strike, demonstrations and looting, calling this ‘degrading’. The De Beers com- pany retracted its policy after this, allow- ing the striking employees to dress in normal work clothing, and to be searched while clothed with shoes removed. Another example of an early strike was the Randfontein Mine strike in 1897. What most of the early strikers had in common was that they were primarily unhappy with their employment condi- tions. These strikes were predominantly about money and benefits, including wages. During the course of the latter part of the last century, unions played a very prominent role in the general polit- ical landscape. While wages and condi- tions of work, including health and safety issues, were still seen as grounds for industrial action, trade unions became, to a large extent, politicised beyond pure labour issues. Since 1994, while the political nature of trade unions is still evident there has been an increased focus on traditional workplace issues. An example of this was the increased involvement of the trade union movement in matters of workplace health and safety, as can be seen in the newspaper report below. NUM plans national Gold Fields strike JOHANNESBURG – The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) will stage a nationwide strike to protest against the high number of deaths at Gold Fields mines, a spokesman said on Monday.

creating minimum standards for work- place health and safety, is the same reason laws exist making a person pun- ishable for robbery or housebreaking. We cannot assume that all persons will at all times act in a way which is for the greater good. Historically, throughout the world, there has been a very close relationship between the rise of employee unionisation and the increase in workplace standards in terms of health and safety legislation. The root of this goes back to the dawn of the indus- trial revolution. While this is not a purely South African phenomenon, the relation- ship between the employer and employee union is one which has had a major impact on the political scenery, stretching back as far as the 1880s. As individual employees had very lit- tle or no power against the might of the employer, they banded together in order to collectively protect their rights, includ- ing denying the employer their labour by striking. The first formally-organised union in South Africa was established in 1881, when the joiners and woodworkers on the Rand unionised. The reason for the unionisation of skilled labourers and miners was to a large extent due to the fact that skills were scarce, and had to be imported. Most of the skilled labour was imported from Britain, mostly Cornwall or Northumberland in England, and from mines in Scotland and Wales, where they had been unionised. They brought these principles with them to South Africa. One of the first examples of organ- ised industrial action in South Africa took place in 1883 in the then Cape Colony. Diamonds had first been discovered in the area of what would later become Kimberley in 1871, which was followed by ‘diamond fever’, when prospectors from all over the world rushed to the Griekwaland diamond fields. By the 1880s, most of the prospectors had either disappeared, or were in the employment 1. The employer – employee relationship

“Gold Fields is the leading killer this year. It is almost every month that Gold Fields has a fatality and we cannot go on like this,” said NUM health and safety spokesman Peter Bailey. The Department of Minerals and Energy last week said that Gold Fields, the world’s fourth-biggest gold producer, had the worst mine death record in the country so far this year. According to Business Report, Gold Fields recorded 47 deaths in the year to last month, including 23 deaths in the first half of this year. Overall, mining deaths were down by 22%, but Gold Fields recorded one of its worst years in history, the Department said. “There is a total neg- ligence and disregard for safety standards and procedures. Management is not tak- ing health and safety seriously,” Bailey told Sapa. “We will stage a one-day national strike. All Gold Fields operations in South Africa will be affected,” he said, adding that a date had yet to be finalised. The mass action would either take place in the last week of July or early August. Gold Fields spokesman Daniel Tole told Business Report that most deaths were “freak accidents.” Some 19 people had died in four such accidents in the first half of this year. In the past eight years, almost 300 deaths had occurred at Gold Fields mines. While there is no doubt that trade unions have historically impacted on gov- ernment policy, the specific relationship that the trade union movement has with government in South Africa will in future have an even greater impact on health and safety legislation. While mining conditions in the British coal industry in the 1800s may not be relevant today, it still contains some of the key issues facing the mining industry today. [Coal miners at work. Created by Mesnel, published on Le Tour du Monde, Paris, 1867]

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MODERN QUARRYING

October - November 2017