About 540 workers at Gold One International’s Modder East gold mine near Johannesburg, South Africa, have been prevented from returning to the surface by labor-union members after a dispute over recognition, reported Bloomberg.
Workers at the operation were kept underground after the night shift ended by the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union, according to Jon Hericourt, a Gold One spokesperson.
For more than a decade, the company has identified the National Union of Mineworkers as the recognized labor group, Hericourt said. AMCU has claimed to meet the criteria needed to reach the status and threatened to strike in a court process that hasn’t been concluded.
Gold One said production is at a standstill as it tries to gain access to the mine to help employees who have been injured in the dispute.
Source: Bloomberg