"African mining unions launch network to defend workers' rights" - IndustriALL Global Union, 30 July 2026

"African mining unions have launched the African mining network (AMNet) to coordinate regional action on the sector. The network will focus on mine workers' rights, precarious work, health and safety, critical minerals, supply-chain accountability and a Just Transition across the continent." More than 50 delegates from 12 African countries agreed to build a common platform, noting that "trade unions in mining still organize mainly within national borders. Mining companies, by contrast, operate across borders with ease."

"Participants identified precarious contracts, weak health and safety enforcement and the growing footprint of Chinese mining firms as challenges no single IndustriALL Global Union affiliate can tackle alone." The network noted that "Africa supplies the raw materials for global decarbonization but remains largely confined to extraction, with limited industrial upgrading and weak links to domestic transformation… Subcontracting, labour broking and informalization have further eroded standard employment relationships and weakened collective bargaining." On safety, "health and safety risks remain severe, especially in underground and poorly regulated operations. Ratification and enforcement of the ILO Safety and Health in Mines Convention (C176) are uneven, leaving African mineworkers exposed to fatalities, injuries, and occupational disease." The meeting also noted that "voluntary ESG and human rights due diligence frameworks have had limited impact, particularly where enforcement is weak and binding accountability is absent."

The network's first concrete actions will target two supply chains. The first is Impala Platinum's supply chain, "which runs from mines in Zimbabwe and South Africa to Volkswagen factories in Germany. Unions plan to use that chain as leverage, working with the Human Rights Due Diligence Competence Centre and German supply-chain law to seek remedy where violations are found." The second is diamonds, with De Beers among producers invited to an August meeting in Botswana. "This is an important network which must be a platform for building trade union power: defending workers' rights, building union strength, holding capital accountable and shaping a Just Transition that works for Africa's mineworkers," said Kemal Ozkan, IndustriALL assistant general secretary.