Negotiations Resumed by Black Miners : Both Sides Report Some Progress in 16-Day-Old Strike

Black strike leaders and mining executives resumed contract negotiations today for the first time since the miners went on strike 16 days ago, and both sides said progress was made toward a settlement.

After almost four hours of talks, Johann Liebenberg, leader of the employers’ negotiating team, said, “We were not prepared to increase wages, but we were prepared to increase fringe benefits.”

He said the Chamber of Mines, which represents the owners of 99 gold and coal mines in wage negotiations, conceded additional vacation allowances and higher danger pay and gave the union until 9 p.m. Wednesday to respond to the offer.

“We have not given them everything they asked for, but that is the bargaining process,” he said.

Progress Noted

Cyril Ramaphosa, leader of the black National Union of Mineworkers, said: “We think progress has been made, (but) the strike is continuing. It has not been stopped.” He said the talks had ended neither in a settlement nor in a deadlock.

The country’s largest and longest black strike began Aug. 9 and has been billed as the biggest black challenge to the authority of white business. At least six people have died and about 350 have been injured in strike-related violence.

About 400 black miners gathered outside the Chamber of Mines building, where the talks were taking place, in a protest to emphasize wage demands. About 20 riot police kept a watch on the group while traffic officers directed rush-hour traffic past it.

The breakthrough in the strike came Monday when Anglo American Corp., which employs about 40% of the country’s 550,000 black miners, dropped its insistence that cash wages could not be on the agenda for settlement negotiations.

Mine owners had refused to reopen talks on union demands for 30% wage hikes, insisting that July awards ranging from 17% to 23% were adequate. But mining bosses offered an open agenda for improved vacations, danger pay and death and retirement benefits for black miners.

On Monday, Bobby Godsell, chief negotiator for Anglo American, told a news conference: “We are not prescribing what people can talk about. The industry desires to talk.” (Story, Page 8.)