Friday, November 2, 2012

South Africa mine strikes: Police fire tear gas

      For the past few months, there has been nothing but turmoil between the miners in many companies in South Africa, and the companies and government they work for. Back in August, at least 40 people were killed trying to resist police when on strike and this article reveals more police brutality as many strikes still go on. This article focuses specifically on the platnium miners. In a recent, blog of mine, I spoke about many of the miners returning back to work because they were given an ultimatum: to start working again, or lose your job. Losing their job was something that many of them could not afford because they already worked for low wages to support their family and their situation was a prime example of the inequality gap in South Africa.
      The platnium mine workers refused to come back to work until their demand for higher pay be met. Being as angry as they were, they set fire to an electricity sub-station and set up barricades to block off police. To disperse the crowd, the police ended up shooting plastic bullets and tear gas into crowds of people. This only can lead to more violence and the want to fight against authority.
     South Africa's gap between the income of workers and the owners and leaders is the among the most unequal in the world. Trying to get workers back by force will not solve anything. The workers want their demands to be met, but according to this article they are demanding $1,840 a month, which is 3 times more that what they make now. The owners should take into consideration how dangerous the mining industry is, the people that these workers have to provide for and their ways of living. A question they could think about is could they live off the wages that they are giving to their workers. South Africa has lost millions of dollars during these strikes so the corporations need to come together to figure out how they will change this before more people die, or they lose more money.

story: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-20137096

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