S. Africa Agrees to Rehire 17,000 Black Rail Strikers

The state-owned railroad of South Africa agreed Friday to rehire 17,000 black workers it fired during a violent, three-month strike in which 11 people were killed and dozens of trains were firebombed.

On the same day, six black miners and two white mine security officers were killed in a new outbreak of labor unrest at one of the country’s gold mines, according to police. About 45 other miners and security personnel were injured in the clash near Welkom, about 175 miles southwest of Johannesburg.

According to Anglo American Corp., the mine owner, its security officials attempted to disperse black miners who gathered, apparently in a wildcat strike, outside one of the shafts at Western Holdings Gold Mine but were attacked with machetes and other weapons and then opened fire. Police later moved in and restored order but used no force, according to police headquarters in Pretoria.

However, the total number of injuries, the actual sequence of events and the cause of the dispute remained unclear more than nine hours after the incident, one of the bloodiest in weeks.

Major Union Victory

The railway workers’ victory is one of the most significant yet for South Africa’s emerging black labor unions. It will undoubtedly have a major political impact by strengthening the role of unions in the broad anti-apartheid movement.

Jay Naidoo, general secretary of the 700,000-member Congress of South African Trade Unions, called the settlement “a major victory for railway workers . . . a victory over apartheid arrogance.”

Hundreds of jubilant workers, celebrating the victory, ran through central Johannesburg to the city’s main railroad station, waving clenched fists and chanting in Zulu, “We are marching to Pretoria!”

Under the agreement announced by the South African Railways and Harbor Workers Union, the state-run South African Transport Services, the largest government employer, agreed to rehire more than 17,000 strikers dismissed here April 22. The workers will suffer no loss in benefits or seniority but will not get back pay.

Detaines To Get Jobs

About 200 union members detained without charge under the current state of emergency, largely for their role in the strike, are also guaranteed reinstatement in their jobs upon release. The union’s president, most members of its executive and bargaining committees and its chief spokesman were all detained in an apparent effort to break the strike.

Eli Louw, the minister of transport, told Parliament in Cape Town on Friday that those convicted of strike-related violence and acts of intimidation will not be rehired, but he said that all others wishing to resume work will be re-employed if they apply in the next 10 days.

Although spokesmen for South African Transport Services refused to discuss the settlement, informed government sources said the agreement was aimed at reducing the considerable industry-wide tension created by the strike and at retaining the railway’s highly experienced work force, which it found it could replace only at considerable cost in training and lost efficiency.

The agreement also settles many of the major grievances that contributed to the start of the strike on March 13.

Hostels to Be Upgraded

Although the railroad does not explicitly recognize the union, it agreed that workers can elect their own representatives, rather than a company union, for collective bargaining. The railroad also pledged to spend the equivalent of $5 million in improving the hostels in which many of the workers live. And it agreed that blacks, like whites, will be given the status of permanent employees, making them eligible for certain benefits, after two years’ work.

The strike, begun over the dismissal of a driver accused of mishandling about $20 in company cash, became the focus of a bitter conflict between the white-led minority government and the increasingly militant black labor movement.

Six blacks were killed by police during protests over the mass dismissals in one of the worst days of violence in the last six months. Five people who continued working were beaten and burned to death in murders that the police blamed on the union and other “radicals.” More than 60 railroad cars were destroyed in arson attacks that sometimes paralyzed the commuter trains around Johannesburg.

‘Root Causes of Dispute’

Much of the bitterness in the strike stemmed, Naidoo said, from the government’s “refusal to concede that their own labor malpractices were the root causes of the dispute.” He added that he hopes the government and other employers have learned that “the unity of the workers cannot be broken by intimidation.”