(Repeats Sunday story with no changes)
* South Africa's union turf war rumbles eastward
* Strike at Marula resembles previous AMCU incursions
* NUM says edged out at Marula as members seek better deal
* Labour strife affects global platinum production
By Ed Stoddard
MARULA PLATINUM MINE, South Africa, July 20 (Reuters) - Whena wildcat strike hit Impala Platinum's Marula mine inSouth Africa's Limpopo province this month, union leaders therehad no idea it was coming.
"We were taken by surprise. We came to work that morning andeveryone was outside saying they were not going to work," saidSolomon Digoro, deputy chairman of the National Union ofMineworkers (NUM) at Marula, 280 kilometres (170 miles)northeast of Johannesburg.
He has a better idea of what might come next: a takeover byarch rival the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union(AMCU), which looks set to expand after leading a five-monthmine strike in the western half of South Africa's platinum beltthat pushed the continent's most advanced economy into reversein the first quarter.
The platinum belt, which resembles a pair of half moonsseparated by 250 km of bush, houses the world's richestdeposits, so the strife is high on investors' radar screens.
The AMCU emerged as the dominant union on the western 'moon'in 2012 after poaching tens of thousands of NUM members in aturf war in which dozens of people were killed.
On the eastern arm, a battle for supremacy now in itsinfancy appears to be following the same pattern.
AMCU has the momentum, its reputation cemented by thesettlement it reached last month with Implats and rivals AngloAmerican Platinum and Lonmin that saw itsmembers get annual pay hikes of up to 20 percent.
Pointedly, the 2,000 wildcat strikers who downed tools atMarula on July 3 said they wanted AMCU's deal, in place of the 8percent hikes NUM secured for them last year.
They returned to work the following week with a commitmentfrom bosses to talk about their issues. NUM got the elbow.
"When it started, we went to the strikers, and our memberssaid they did not want to talk to NUM. They wanted managers andthey wanted the Rustenburg deal," Digoro told Reuters in NUM'scramped pre-fabricated offices at Marula.
AMCU National Treasurer Jimmy Gama said the union had sincemet management, who agreed to start deducting AMCU union dues.For investors and the mining companies, it is worryingly likehistory repeating itself.
"What happened at Marula is 100 percent what happened atRustenburg two and a half years ago," said a senior Implatsmanager.
The manager, who asked not to be named, was referring to awildcat strike by rock drill operators at Implats' keyRustenburg mine on the western limb in early 2012. The stoppageended with AMCU elbowing NUM out of the shafts.
"Like Marula, when the NUM guys went to address theRustenburg strikers, they were chased away. The rock drilloperators at Rustenburg also wanted the same pay as the rockdrill operators at other mines in the area."
VIOLENCE FEARS
At Marula, the last Implats operation where NUM is in themajority, Digoro and other shop stewards have also beenthreatened and said they lived in fear of their lives.
"We know we have been targeted because people in ourcommunities have told us we need to watch out. We are allscared," said an NUM shop steward who did not want to be named.
AMCU routinely denies allegations it uses violence andintimidation, but dozens of people have been killed in the unionrivalry, and its rank and file often march, clubs in hand, indramatic shows of force.
Virtually all Marula's workers live in communities outsidethe mines, instead of company hostels, a situation AMCU hasexploited before as it is far easier for a new union to recruitif the workforce is not corralled on mine property.
The communities, many of them shanty towns that have sprungup from the surrounding bush, lie next to each other, so if theMarula miners get a pay rise, the news will travel quicklythrough the bars and shops the miners use.
Just to the south lies the Modikwa mine, run by AfricanRainbow Minerals, where the workforce of 5,000 is 87percent NUM - for now. NUM sources say AMCU is making headwaynorth of Marula at Amplats' Twickenham mine.
AMCU's initial drive into the eastern limb was hugelysuccessful two years ago when it dislodged NUM at the Everestmine run by Aquarius Platinum, only to see the companyshut the operation - in part because of labour upheaval.
That closure temporarily thwarted AMCU's push into the area,but since the Everest shutdown, industry attempts to mothballmines or cut jobs have been met with fierce resistance from AMCUand South Africa's governing party, the African NationalCongress.
Consequently, any AMCU membership drive in the east is lesslikely to be crimped by shaft closures. Indeed, loomingrestructuring and job cuts in the industry are widely expectedto be focused on the western limb.
Over 70,000 platinum miners are now AMCU members, while NUMnumbers are close to 30,000, according to Reuters estimates.Renewed labour strife could affect up to 25 percent of globalproduction after the recent AMCU strike halted 40 percent.
On the western limb, NUM still has majorities at a handfulof operations, including those run by Northam Platinum and at Royal Bafokeng Platinum.
At the latter, NUM signed a five-year wage deal on Wednesdayfor increases of 7 percent and 10.5 percent on basic pay, withhousing subsidies thrown into the mix. (Additional reporting by Zandi Shabalala in Johannesburg;Editing by Ed Cropley and Will Waterman)
