THERE is a light at the end of the tunnel for the dismissed Gold One Mine workers in Springs, Ekurhuleni.
The Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union's (Amcu) regional leader Tladi Mokwena said their union will fight tooth and nail for the dismissed workers.
He said initially they had filed 349 conciliations cases to the CCMA of the workers that were dismissed by the mine.
"The recent list that we got, on Tuesday, 30 January, was 450 and chances are that the list could increase to 500.
“On Thursday, 8 February, we are going to CCMA for conciliations,” said Tladi.
Tladi said the verification process was concluded last week and 504 of the workers have been physically verified and confirmed as Amcu members.
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“However, there are 184 forms which were not physically verified. The employer will run the verification status and tally those numbers to Amcu verified members which then put our union to over 650 to enjoy the majority status,” said Tladi.
He said the CCMA is expected to release the final report this week from the verification process, including the 184 forms that Amcu sent to the employer.
“Then the parties will have to agree on a meeting as to when to sign the recognition agreement,” said Tladi.
He said the verified members based on the subscription will officially be serving their one-month notice to NUM.
“Their notice of termination of membership is effective from 1 February,” said Tladi.
The mine has been facing troubles since October 2023, when it was affected by protests, hostage drama, the assault of workers and underground sit-ins.
The workers demanded the company recognise Amcu as their new union.
They alleged that NUM was not fighting for their rights.
In October and December, they hosted sit-ins underground, and in November, NUM decided to terminate the close-shop agreement at Modder East Gold One Mine in Springs.
NUM reportedly took the decision to safeguard jobs and save the lives of innocent workers.
Amcu is set to fight tooth and nail for the dismissed Gold One Mineworkers.
The mine's head of legal, Ziyaad Hassam confirmed to Daily Sun that the verification process was concluded on Friday, 2 February.
“The CCMA is giving us the report today, 6 February so we expect to get that report some more sometime during the day, which will confirm the number of people who were verified and the number that confirmed the movement from NUM to Amcu.
"Based on those numbers we will then enter into a recognition agreement with Amcu and the 30-day notice period to NUM will end at the end of this month. On 1 March Amcu will be recognised as a union at the mine,” said Ziyaad.
