Gold Fields, Harmony Gold Face Strike by Largest Labor Union (S.Africa)

[struggle4progress]

March 30 (Bloomberg) -- Gold Fields Ltd. and Harmony Gold Mining Co., South Africa's second- and third-largest gold producers, face a strike by most of their workers because of disputes including housing allowances.

Gold Fields' South African workforce will stop work at 6 p.m., the company said in a statement to Johannesburg's stock exchange. A strike by 20,000 Harmony workers in the Free State province will spread to all its mines in the country, as unaffected workers embark on a ``solidarity strike,'' the National Union of Mineworkers said in a separate statement. <snip>

About 1,800 workers at Gold Fields's Kloof mine stopped work earlier today. The union wants Gold Fields to increase by 70 percent the 706 rand ($111) a month payment it makes to miners who don't live in communal housing at mines. <snip>

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