S. Africa Strike at Key Point, Union Leader Says : Black Mineworkers’ Vow to Continue Stoppage Seen as a Test of Strength

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — The leader of South Africa’s striking black miners, who have cut the country’s gold and coal production by more than a third, said Sunday that this week will be crucial in the country’s biggest test of strength yet between black labor and white management.

Cyril Ramaphosa, general secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers, said that the escalating violence in the week-old strike could increase if police and mine security forces carry out more of what he called “military-style” assaults on worker hostels and union offices.

Ramaphosa said the miners are preparing to take “defensive measures,” but he did not describe them.

Strike Will Spread

The strike will spread this week to several more mines, and two other predominantly black unions decided to stop work at the plants that convert coal into oil and at the main port that ships coal overseas.

“This coming week is crucial,” Ramaphosa said after an all-day meeting here of his union’s strike committee. “It is clear that the state has taken a decision to intervene with a view toward undermining the strike. . . . We believe they will make a concerted effort to crush it in military style by moving in mine security and the South African police.”

The latest clashes between the strikers and mine security personnel occurred Saturday at a gold mine southwest of Johannesburg and at a coal mine in eastern Transvaal province.

More than 240 miners have now been injured, according to union figures, and about 200 have been arrested. One man died, a non-striker reportedly killed by fellow workers.

An estimated 335,000 black miners went on strike Aug. 9 at more than 50 gold mines and collieries in support of demands for a 30% wage increase and other benefits, including improved safety standards and better working conditions. The major mining companies had already put into effect a “final offer”--wage increases of 17% to 23%--and have rejected union calls for further negotiations over pay.

The independent Labor Monitoring Group estimated Sunday that the work stoppage will, within two or three more days, have cost the mines at least $75 million in lost profits, roughly what all the union’s demands would require.

Johann Liebenberg, chief labor negotiator for the South African Chamber of Mines, said the companies did not intend to ask the union to resume wage talks, which collapsed in a stalemate more than a month ago, and would make no new pay offers.

From the outset, the strike has been a test of strength for the five-year-old mineworkers, the country’s largest union, and the Chamber of Mines, which groups the six largest mining companies. Eventual terms of settlement will have a widespread economic effect, and a clear victory for one side or the other would have profound political implications.

“The stakes are clear to everyone. . . ,” a union official commented. “That, in turn, is the reason for all the violence. . . . There will be more violence, I am afraid, because the state, monopoly capital and management are all agreed on the need to break this strike. . . .”

Mineworkers’ officials are particularly concerned by plans of giant Anglo American to close as uneconomical a coal mine and two shafts at separate gold mines today in an apparent attempt to put pressure on the union to end the strike. Several thousand miners will be put out of work.

“In spite of these threats, our members will not be cowed,” Ramaphosa declared. “In our view, this threat to close the mines is a new management strategy. . . .”

Vow to Continue Strike

Ramaphosa said that the miners “will not knuckle under to Anglo American, they will not return to work on Monday as demanded, the strike will continue until our demands are fully met. . . .”

The mineworkers agreed, however, to meet with Anglo American today to discuss ways to reduce strike violence. The meeting will be the first between the union and management since the strike began.

Anglo American proposed that mine hostels, including company canteens, should continue to operate normally, that strikers be allowed to picket in designated areas and that mine security forces refrain from intervening in return for an end to what the company called “intimidation and employee violence.”

Anglo American, which has been hit the hardest by the strike, also offered to reopen negotiations on non-wage issues with the union in an attempt to reduce the rising tension in the gold fields, which are a mainstay of the South African economy.

‘Barbaric Acts’ by Police

“We are pleased to note that Anglo American has come to its senses and has stopped being so arrogant,” Ramaphosa told reporters. “But the strike continues until a settlement is reached.”

Ramaphosa recalled that, at the outset of the strike, the mineworkers had raised the possibility of violence with the Chamber of Mines but received no answer on its proposals to avoid clashes.

“Instead we have seen barbaric and violent acts committed by mine security and the South African police,” Ramaphosa said.

Management spokesmen, however, blame the miners for the violence, which they contend stems largely from union members’ efforts to intimidate non-strikers and force them to join the work stoppage and, in several incidents, from attacks on mine security forces and from sabotage of mine equipment.