Production has been unaffected.

I read this heading in Business Day Live. It is in the context of the following:

One person was killed and another seriously wounded in a shooting incident at the National Union of Mineworkers’ (NUM’s) offices at Lonmin’s Wonderkop operations near Rustenburg.

According to the Mail and Guardian the NUM regional spokesperson, Mxhasi Sithethi, said that the local shaft leaders

… was killed in front of the union offices …

I contiune to read:

The shootings at the Marikana mine near Rustenburg, north-west of Johannesburg, follow the assassination of a leader from NUM's rival union, the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu), last month.

Remember the shootings at Marikana last year. Involved were the NUM and Amcu. And the police, of course. 34 people were killed by the police but before the police came to the scene there had been a number of killings.

Let’s pray that the police can stop this in time and without using the kind of force they did last year.

From what I read in the M&G I understand that the company has agreed in negotiations at the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration to set

… threshold rights of 35% for basic rights and 45% for collective bargaining and rights to full-time shop stewards.

NUM members make up only 20% of the workforce and therefor they don’t get organisational rights. I guess this means they cannot go on strikes etc.

But isn’t it sad to read that the production has been unaffected. Which workplace would continue production when one of the trade union leaders has been shot dead?