Swazi coalminers locked underground

100 WORKERS LOCKED IN MINE
The Swazi Observer - Mbabane,Swaziland
About a 100 mineworkers are said to have been locked inside the shaft of Maloma Colliery since Wednesday midnight. Selby Mtshali, President of the Mining Quarrying and Allied Workers Union of Swaziland (MQAWUS) has alleged that they have been locked in there in the aftermath of the general lockout following a strike action that was to start at midnight on Wednesday. Surprisingly the Mine Manager J. Breytenbach says there are about 78 underground workers who are refusing to come out to the surface as a form of protest. Mtshali said the workers were in the Wednesday 6pm shift and were to knock off at 4am yesterday. However because of the strike action the workers allege that management decided to lock those inside the shaft there while others were locked out and as a result those in the morning shift were not allowed in. Mtshali said the only food ration they had was two packets of 100 grammes of Movite energy food.When we visited the mine the premises were locked and guarded by both security and police ... labour inspectors from Big Bend led by one Mkhonta declined to talk to our reporters because they said they were still consulting ... The workers claim they wanted parity with other Xstrata alloys (mother company) employees. They further say management receives SA salary scales while the ordinary mineworker receives ‘peanuts’. They want this (parity) to apply to all staff. They further allege that some senior managers were offered 25 percent salary raise while junior staff got only six percent. They say management has been hosting lavish parties of late instead of paying them well. Then the matter went through balloting by invoking Section 86 (2) of the Industrial Relations Act of 2005 as amended. CMAC conducted the balloting which favoured the workers by 99.12 votes, they say. Only two were against the strike action out of 440 employees ...