In South Africa, dissatisfied miners are taking their co-workers hostage and confining them in deep underground shafts to force concessions from corporate bosses. Mining companies and workers say the violent strikes emerged as part of a turf war between the country’s two biggest mining unions, whose competition for fee-paying members has heated up just months before national elections. At some mines, they were also employed to demand higher wages and other changes to compensation. The wildcat strikes began in October 2023 at Gold One, which has experienced two such underground protests, and have since spread to several other mines, including 

The disputes add to the physical risks of some of the world’s most dangerous jobs and further imperil South Africa’s embattled mining sector, where hundreds of thousands of workers still toil underground in some of the oldest and deepest shafts on earth. South Africa is the world’s largest producer of platinum and a major gold producer. The average salary of an underground employee at Modder East gold mine is 10,500 South African rand, equivalent to around $550, a month, according to Gold One. Miners typically work eight-hour shifts, six days a week.

At one such underground protest, the kidnappers sent a note to the mine’s managers at the surface that said they would start killing hostages [their co-workers] if no food was sent down. One miner was hospitalized with severe lacerations after being whipped on the lower half of his body…

Excerpts from Alexandra Wexler, Kidnapped by Co-Workers: South African Labor Disputes Take a Violent Turn, Feb. 14, 2024