Zambia union, Kansanshi copper mine in pay dispute

LUSAKA, June 20 (Reuters) - Zambian copper producer Kansanshi Mining has won a court order preventing its workers from going on strike in a dispute over pay, union officials said on Friday.

Workers at Kansanshi mine, a unit of Canada's First Quantum Minerals (FM.TO) that plans to produce 165,000 tonnes of copper concentrate and copper cathode in 2008, went on strike in 2007 after a similar dispute.

"The management has obtained an injunction to restrain workers from striking," said Goodwell Kaluba, general secretary of the National Union of Mining and Allied Workers (Numaw).

"We had almost concluded negotiations for salary increment before the situation just became complicated."

A senior mining industry source close to the negotiations said the union, which represents 368 workers at Kansanshi mine, one of Zambia's biggest copper producers, was asking for a 17.5 percent pay rise, which management rejected.

"There appears to be some problems in the negotiations and things don't look good at the moment. The management does not seem keen to offer what the union has been asking for, while the union has refused to sign what the management is offering them," the source said.

Kaluba said the Numaw had instructed its lawyers to obtain a counter injunction to stop management from influencing employees to leave the union.

"Management has been trying to influence workers to leave the union and we have asked our lawyers to stop that through an injunction," he said said.

In April, Msiska told the state-run news agency, Zanis, that management had offered 15.8 percent while the union was demanding 29 percent pay rise. (Reporting by Shapi Shacinda)