By Norm Dixon
JOHANNESBURG — Twenty thousand striking car assembly workers took to streets in different parts of the country last week in support of demands for higher pay and the rapid elimination of race-based wage anomalies. Thousands of shop workers employed at the Shoprite/Checkers supermarket have also marched, and picketing continues against unfair dismissals and victimisation. A ballot for strike action at Shoprite/Checkers stores nationwide is likely to be held soon. Disputes are also brewing in the tyre industry, the mines, the steel and engineering industries and in the Spar chain of supermarkets.
The car assembly workers, members of the National Union of Metalworkers (NUMSA), began a nationwide strike on August 1 for a 12% wage rise and the elimination of apartheid-era wage differentials over the next three years. The Automobile Manufacturers Employers' Organisation (AMEO) has refused to increase its offer of 9% and the ending of racist pay scales over four years. The motor industry, South Africa's second largest with an annual turnover of R40 billion, has ground to a halt.
NUMSA members were further angered when AMEO announced on August 9 that the 9% offer would be calculated on the average wage of all assembly workers rather than all workers. This would result in rises of only 5% in the largest plants. NUMSA organiser Gavin Hartford said that 48% of car workers would receive below 9% if the employers' formula was accepted.
Two thousand vocal Mercedes Benz workers marched on the company's administration offices in East London on August 10. In Pretoria, the voices of 10,000 strikers from the nearby BMW, Nissan and Samcor plants resounded through the streets. On August 11, 7000 workers from the Volkswagen and Delta plants in Port Elizabeth marched through the city and converged on the Midland Chamber of Industries, where negotiations between the union and AMEO resumed on August 9.
On August 8, NUMSA declared a dispute with tyre manufacturers; 8000 workers in the Eastern Cape and the PWV are involved. A declaration of a dispute is a legal requirement before workers are entitled to go on strike. NUMSA is demanding a 12% wage increase and the elimination of racist pay scales over the next two years. Employers have offered 7.5-9% and a three-year time scale to close the wage gap.
On August 10, 1000 shop workers from the Shoprite/Checkers supermarket chain marched through Johannesburg. The workers, members of the South African Commercial Catering and Allied Workers Unions (SACCAWU), were protesting the mid-May dismissal of a shop steward who had raised workers' grievances. The company claims the steward was sacked for racist abuse of a manager. Hundreds of further dismissals have followed. At least 24 supermarkets are on strike in the PWV.
Angry workers have marched on several supermarkets in Johannesburg over the past weeks. On August 5, hundreds of workers marched from the city centre to the Hillbrow Checkers and sang and toyi-toyied outside. The Checkers branches in Hillbrow and Yeoville have been picketed regularly. Management called police to the Hillbrow store on August 8 but no arrests were made.
On August 7, SACCAWU agreed to a non-binding "advisory arbitration" in an effort to resolve the dispute. A ballot of all SACCAWU members at Shoprite/Checkers' 200 stores nationwide was postponed. By August 10, little headway had been made according to SACCAWU's Jeremy Daphne. The union was preparing to resume the strike ballot.
In a separate dispute, 3000 SACCAWU members employed in the Spar chain of supermarkets are to vote on whether to strike over wages and conditions.
Big business is holding its breath as two major disputes involving hundreds of thousands of workers remain in mediation. NUMSA and the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of South Africa (SEIFSA), which employs over 280,000 workers, are locked in talks. NUMSA is demanding a 12% rise and SEIFSA is offering 8%.
Mediation continues between the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the Chamber of Mines on two disputes. One involves a 12% wage claim for the NUM's 385,000 members, and the other the chamber's backtracking on an agreement to provide basic education and training to mineworkers.
The police and courts have again entered the industrial arena. On August 9, 229 members of the Chemical Workers Industrial Union were arrested and charged with contempt of court at White River in the Eastern Transvaal. CWIU general secretary Muzi Buthelezi said the workers, from the Sakro plastic bag company, were arrested for breaching a court order which prevented picketing of the plant. Despite agreeing to move 1 kilometre from the company's gate, police still arrested the workers.