S. African Mines Fire Thousands of Strikers : Others Warned of Job Loss Unless They Resume Work; Many Reportedly Vote to Stand Firm

Three of South Africa’s mining companies, adopting tougher tactics to deal with a strike by black miners, began firing thousands of the strikers Thursday when they refused to return to work in the country’s gold mines.

Anglo American Corp., hit hardest by the strike, dismissed more than 2,000 strikers at one shaft of its sprawling Vaal Reefs mine at Orkney, about 100 miles southwest of Johannesburg, when they rejected an ultimatum to go back to work. Anglo American said the shaft will be closed and the jobs lost.

Anglo American warned 4,000 more strikers at a second mine, a shaft at Western Holdings in the Orange Free State, that they, too, will be fired and their jobs abolished if they do not return to work today and accept the management’s pay package.

Vote to Continue Strike

The miners, who are demanding substantially greater wage increases than the companies have offered, voted to continue their strike, according to the National Union of Mineworkers, and 18,000 other miners at the complex said they would leave with those dismissed in a show of solidarity.

Johannesburg Consolidated Investment Co., meanwhile, told 4,000 miners at the Randfontein Estates mine, on the western outskirts of Johannesburg, that they were being dismissed but would be rehired if they resumed work immediately. The company called it a legal lockout permitted by South Africa’s labor laws. The miners will discuss the ultimatum at a rally today.

And General Mining Union Corp., known as Gencor, warned 24,000 strikers at four gold mines southeast of Johannesburg that they face “disciplinary action,” which might include dismissal, unless they return to their jobs today.

Cyril Ramaphosa, the mine union’s general secretary, described the company moves as a concerted effort to break the 12-day-old strike by threatening the miners with dismissal and in some cases the abolition of their jobs at unprofitable mines.

“We have not accepted that our members have been lawfully dismissed,” Ramaphosa told a news conference Thursday night. “These workers were on a legal strike. The actions by the company will be challenged.”

Anglo American contended, however, that the strikers, by refusing to go back to work as ordered, had “resigned” and chosen to return to their homes in remote rural areas or in neighboring countries. The two shafts it is closing were already unprofitable, the company said, and the strike made it impossible to keep them open.

But union officials said the Vaal Reefs miners had been marched at gunpoint by mine security officials to a sports stadium where, after all but 27 had again refused to go back to work, they were paid their final wages and put on buses.

Gencor, which usually takes the hardest line in labor relations of all the mining companies, said in a statement that so far it has “acted extremely reasonably in repeatedly appealing to employees to return to work,” but that it felt it now had to make clear the “possible consequences” of a continued strike.

Denies Intent to Punish

“We do not want to lose our employees as a result of this strike,” Gencor said, “and disciplinary procedures are not designed as punishment but to ensure that the business of the company is conducted in an orderly way. . . .”

Marcel Golding, the union’s assistant general secretary, assured those miners dismissed that their reinstatement would be an element in any agreement the union reached with mining companies.

But strikers at a coal mine owned by Anglo American in eastern Transvaal province voted earlier this week to return to work after the company told them that it would close the colliery, regarded as unprofitable, if they did not.

“They made the decision democratically at a meeting,” Ramaphosa said, “and our union respects that decision.”

The overall strike will continue, he added, until agreement is reached on wages. The union is asking for a 30% across-the-board pay increase. The companies offered raises of 15% to 23%, which they implemented unilaterally last month and then declared the issue closed.

No Negotiations Held

No negotiations have been held on this and other central issues since the strike began, and none are scheduled at present. But Gavin Relly, Anglo American’s chairman, reiterated his company’s willingness to discuss issues such as vacation pay, death and injury benefits and formation of a health and welfare fund.

The union says that about 340,000 of South Africa’s 600,000 black miners have joined the strike, the largest wage dispute in the country’s history, but the Chamber of Mines says that fewer than 220,000 are now participating. Production has been halted at about a third of the country’s gold and coal mines.

Further company moves, including more closures of unprofitable or marginal mines, are likely, union officials believe, as the mining houses try to erode the strikers’ morale and create a widespread return to work without reopening negotiations on wages.

Says Miners Stand Firm

“We anticipate that ultimatum after ultimatum will be issued at our members,” Ramaphosa said. “But they are aware of these tactics, and our members have decided that they are not going back until all these issues are resolved.”

Meanwhile, sentiment is rising within the black labor movement for a general strike nationwide “in solidarity with the mine workers” if the dismissals continue, according to the weekly newspaper New Nation, which has strong ties with black unions.