Prospect of South African coal miners strike diminishing?

摘要

After a fourth day of conciliation talks, presided over by the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration, (CCMA), the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) said they are now much closer than ever before to reaching some kind of solution. On Thursday, talks with the Chamber of Mines, the industry body negotiating on behalf of producers, saw "some level of progress," a spokesman for the NUM, the industry's largest union, said. "Up until today, there was no hope of trying to find each other," he added. A Chamber of Mines spokesman noted that "significant progress" had been made, adding "I'm relativelyt optimistic that we will get an agreement." The final level for wage increases is as yet unsettled, as the NUM has rejected a third and improved wage increase offer though, crucially, agreement has been reached on a number of other issues.