By Nicholas Bariyo
Workers at Zambia's Chinese-owned Luanshya Copper Mines have
received a 14% pay rise in a new labor deal starting January 2013
as union officials continue to push for higher wages in Africa's
largest copper producing nation, a union official told Dow Jones
Newswires Friday.
Union representatives were pushing for as much as 20% in wage
increments but had to lower demands following weeks of talks,
Joseph Chewe, the general secretary of the Miners Union of Zambia,
told Dow Jones Newswires. Luanshya, a unit of China Nonferrous
Metals Co. (8306.HK) becomes the first mining company in Zambia to
offer a pay rise as negotiations for 2013 labor deals continue
across the Southern African nation's mining regions.
"Talks with Luanshya have been concluded very well, we are still
negotiating with the other companies" Mr. Chewe said.
Zambia's unions negotiate annual labor agreements. Talks with
companies including London-listed Vedanta Resources PLC (VED.LN),
Glencore International PLC (GLEN.LN) and Toronto-listed First
Quantum Minerals Ltd. (FM.T) started in October and expected to be
concluded before the end of the year.
According to Mr. Chewe, union representatives are under pressure
from workers to negotiate high wage increments, due to rising cost
of living, occasioned by higher prices of food and basic
commodities.
A company spokesman couldn't be reached for an immediate
comment.
A five-day wage strike at Luanshya cost the mining company at
least 14,000 metric tons of copper in lost output in December last
year. Chinese-owned enterprises have pumped millions of dollars in
Zambia's mining sector but their labor laws remain largely
unpopular. Union officials say that Chinese companies pay the
lowest wages in Zambia's mining sector.
In July, Zambian miners at the Chinese-owned Collum Coal mine
killed their Chinese supervisor during a riot over a wage row.
There are some 60,000 unionized workers in the sector and copper
accounts for the bulk of the country's exports.
Write to Nicholas Bariyo at Nicholas.Bariyo@dowjones.com
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