Union, Debswana Willing to Talk, Despite Workers Strike

The workers’ union says it’s not behind the Botswana diamond mining workers strike that led Debswana to close Damstha, one of its four mines, while sources in Debswana say the company is willing to continue negotiations despite the strike.

As some of the workers at all four mines are striking illegally, Senna Gaebepe, National Chairman of the Botswana Mine Workers Union (BMWU), told IDEX Online today that the union didn’t sanction the strike.

“We are talking to them and trying to return [workers] to negotiations,” he says, adding that the union is sending a letter to management asking not to make the situation worse. Gaebepe is not the only one looking to find a way to continue wage negotiations that have been going on since March.

Jacob Sesinyi, Debswana’s Employee Relations Manager, echoes the sentiment. “We are willing to open a dialogue even if the strike continues,” he said today between meetings during the second day of the strike.

While details are not clear, it seems that some of the mine workers, apparently treatment plant workers and other lower paid employees, decided that negotiations were taking too long and went on strike without union consent.

How many are on strike is also sketchy, with numbers ranging from over 50 percent of the approximately 6,000-strong workforce to less then 1,400. In any case, union branch leadership is not among them, the union stressed.

Meanwhile, the other mines are working at “close to normal” levels, although the strike is going to affect production.

Botswana is in the midst of change. The diamond industry, the central economic pillar of the African country, is mainly mining but the country is interested in more, namely polishing, which in turn means receiving a local supply by De Beers, the 50 percent partner in the Debswana monopoly.

The Botswana government, the other partner in Debswana, is interested in developing a local industry downstream from mining, not necessarily with or by De Beers.

What the industry will look like once the dust settles in unknown. But the extended talks over the renewal of the Jwaneng mining license, the demand for local supply and maybe also higher pay for the mined goods, coupled with a strong interest by Israeli diamond magnate Lev Leviev to enter the country is reshaping the relationship between De Beers and Botswana.