De Beers Offers South African Mine Workers 7% Pay Rise
June 20, 07
De Beers Consolidated Mines (DBCM), the firm’s African mining arm, has offered its South African mine workers a 7 percent pay raise, it said Tuesday. The National Union of Mineworkers, the workers union, is demanding an 11 percent wage increase.
The wage negotiations come at a time when the company is looking to sell two losing diamond mines in the country, leaving it with only two mines. The diamond industry suffered a rough year in 2006, and De Beers was especially harmed by a weakening dollar that eroded its margins.