The Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) was formed in Mpumalanga,

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

, in 1998 as a breakaway faction of the

COSATU The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) is a trade union federation in South Africa. It was founded in 1985 and is the largest of the country's three main trade union federations, with 21 affiliated trade unions.One Union expelled, ...

-affiliated National Union of Mineworkers (NUM). It was formally registered as a union in 2001. According to

Mining Weekly ''Mining Weekly'' is South Africa’s premier source of weekly news on mining developments in Africa’s most important industry. ''Mining Weekly'' provides in-depth coverage of mining projects & the personalities reshaping the mining industry. ...

, the union sees itself as distinct from NUM in that it is "apolitical and noncommunist". Competition with NUM over bargaining rights, especially at the Impala Platinum and

Lonmin Lonmin plc, formerly Lonrho plc, was a British producer of platinum group metals operating in the Bushveld Complex of South Africa. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange. Its registered office was in London, and its operational headquarters ...

mines in the

Rustenburg Rustenburg (; , Afrikaans and Dutch: ''City of Rest'') is a city at the foot of the Magaliesberg mountain range. Rustenburg is the most populous city in North West province, South Africa (549,575 in 2011 and 626,522 in the 2016 census). In 20 ...

area culminated in the violent Marikana miners' strike and what became known as the

Marikana Massacre The Marikana massacre was the killing of thirty-four miners by the South African Police Service (SAPS) on 16 August 2012 during a six-week wildcat strike at the Lonmin platinum mine at Marikana near Rustenburg in South Africa's North West pr ...

, in which police shot and killed over 30 strikers. The AMCU now represents over 70% of

employees, compared to the 20% representation of the NUM. It is also the majority union at Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) and Impala Platinum.

References

See also