The Association Mineworkers Construction Union

Patrick Bond: The union says they have accepted a new wage offer in principle, according to Deutsche Welle. What has still to be settled Patrick Bond: This is the stage where they are just putting all the final dots and crosses on their contract. The Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union was demanding an entry level wage of about $1,200 , double what the miners currently earn. There are always with these mining houses exceptionally tricky phrasings that have to be worked out, because two years ago, when settling the strike right after the Marikana massacre in September 2012, Joseph Mathunjwa, the main negotiator for AMCU - the Association for Mineworkers and Construction Union - thought he was getting a 22 percent increase, but the tricky way in which the contracts were arranged meant that at the end of the day it was closer to ten percent. Although it falls very far short of the demand for 12,500 rand per month, it is still a very, very impressive increase, but the workers have been on strike for five months and they have lost about a billion dollars in wages and they'll never win those back, unless huge increases take place in the future. He now claiming a 20 percent increase. (news.financializer.com). As reported in the news.