South African Black Miners Vow to Strike : Also Threaten Boycott of Stores if Emergency Curbs Are Not Ended

Black miners in South Africa’s vital gold and coal fields announced Sunday that they plan to strike Aug. 25 over collective bargaining issues. Such a walkout could cripple the country’s already troubled economy and spread continuing civil unrest nationwide.

The National Union of Mineworkers, the largest black labor organization in South Africa, also threatened to boycott white-owned stores unless the government lifts by Wednesday the state of emergency imposed July 21 to deal with civil violence.

And in still another challenge to South Africa’s white-minority regime, the miners’ union said it will call an immediate strike if President Pieter W. Botha tries to carry out a threat to send 1.5 million workers back to neighboring black countries in retaliation for international economic sanctions against South Africa over its apartheid policy. Forty percent of the union’s members are migrant workers from nearby nations.

Union Strategy Session

The threatened actions were made public after a weekend strategy session of union leaders and a mass meeting of 20,000 miners.

If the black miners walked out for whatever reason, the strike “would bring the gold mining industry to a halt,” Cyril Ramaphosa, the union’s general secretary said after the meeting. “You cannot replace 200,000 or 300,000 miners in a day, a week or even a month, and even when you have replaced them, it is many months--maybe years--before productivity is restored.”

A miners’ strike would mean serious economic problems for South Africa. As the world’s largest producer of gold, this country gets about half of its export earnings from the mineral.

In addition, South Africa’s vital coal supplies might, for a time, be threatened. Coal is an indispensable source of energy because South Africa’s oil imports have been restricted by an international embargo designed to end its official policy of apartheid.

History of Violence

Miners’ strikes--including a brief one in September, 1984, and several wildcat work stoppages last month--have often led to violence, something that could prove particularly explosive if it occurs in the current political climate.

According to the union’s announcement, members will strike Aug. 25 if contract negotiations are not concluded by then. The main demands are for better wages and working conditions.

“It will be the most important strike this country has ever had,” Manoko Nchwe, the union’s spokeswoman, said.

Ramaphosa said that the mine owners can avoid a strike with a “realistic offer” but that this would have to come “much closer” to the 22% wage increase requested by the union than the Chamber of Mines’ offer of 14% to 19% pay raises. The pay gap, while notable, has nonetheless been closing in recent years, and black miners’ pay is among the highest on the continent. The average salaries of white miners are now five times higher than those of blacks, employers report, whereas in 1971 they were 21 times higher.

More Job Opportunities

Also important, Ramaphosa said, are union demands for longer vacations, shorter hours, May Day as a paid holiday and opportunities for black advancement in the mines. Whileconceding that there has been progress in recent years, the union is seeking abolition of all racially based pay differentials and of a code that reserves certain higher-paying jobs for whites.

The South African Chamber of Mines, representing the major gold- and coal-mining companies, replied in a statement Sunday that the union’s demands are “totally unrealistic.” The statement asserted that black miners will not support a strike for the goals as stated by the union.

The National Union of Mineworkers, now three years old, claims a dues-paying membership of 150,000 black miners working in South Africa’s gold, coal, diamond and platinum pits, but Nchwe said that actual membership has grown in recent months to more than 230,000 of the nation’s 550,000 black miners.

“People who are not members of the union support the strike,” she said. “We have no doubt they will all join. We regard ourselves as the representatives of the entire 550,000 black workers in the mines.”

Boycott a Key Tactic

The first potential challenge to the union’s strength will come in the threatened miners’ boycott of white-owned shops over the state of emergency imposed two weeks ago.

Many white-owned stores in mining centers exist only to sell goods and services to the black mineworkers and might not be able to stay in business if a boycott were successful. The government indicated last week that it is prepared to break that kind of consumer boycott in rural areas, but the strength of the mineworkers’ union poses another dimension and thus a bigger problem.

The state of emergency gives the police and army near-absolute powers in more than 60 black townships in the 36 affected magisterial districts, and police announced Sunday that they have detained a total of 1,412 people since the measure went into effect. So far, 114 of those arrested have been released.