In spite of increased repression against Namibian trade unions including raids on offices, the detention of leading officials and activists, and the suppression of a miners' strike in August, the unions continued to make steady gains in the second half of 1987. Existing unions won new members and signed recognition agreements with employers and a major new union was formed in the public sector. (See FOCUS 72 p.9, 73 p.3)

However, repression continued. The demolition of the Katutura hostel in Windhoek made thousands of contract workers homeless and destroyed a base of support for worker organisation and SWAPO. Unions were at the same time concerned that the Commission of Inquiry into Labour Matters set up by the Administrator-General in September would lead to new restrictions on organisation.

UNIONS CONSOLIDATE

In the 15 months before October 1987 the three unions affiliated to the SWAPO-aligned National Union of Namibian Workers (NUNW) recruited some 32,000 members – 15 per cent of the country’s 220,000 industrial workers. (SS 14.10.87)

In December they were joined by a major new union launched in the public sector, the Namibian Public Workers Union (NAPWU), drawing on some 8,000 workers already organised into committees in municipalities, hospitals, the Electricity Corporation, the Departments of Nature Conservation and Water Affairs, and postal and telecommunication services. (WA 7.12.87; SS 10.12.87; Nam 11.12.87)

  • MUN In spite of its setback in the August strike at the Tsumeb Corporation (TCL) copper mines, the Mineworkers Union of Namibia (MUN) made new gains. In December it signed an agreement with Tsumeb giving it access to company premises to recruit. The agreement improved on an earlier one which the union had refused to sign after some clauses were unilaterally altered by TCL's holding company in South Africa, Goldfields. In September the MUN signed a similar agreement with employers at RTZ's Rossing Uranium mine. (WA 2.9.87; Nam 18.12.87)
  • NAFAU In September NUNW's strongest affiliate, the Namibian Food and Allied Union (NAFAU), held its second annual congress. Since its formation in 1986 its membership had increased from 6,000 to 11,000 with a presence in 74 individual plants around the country, mostly in the larger towns. In the year before its congress it won victories in at least 11 disputes. At the congress delegates resolved to campaign for a 'living wage' and paid maternity leave.

In October NAFAU became the first of the NUNW's affiliates to be officially registered, a status which will give it access to official bargaining machinery. (Nam 25.9.87; South 1.10.87; Anti-Apartheid News Nov/Dec 1987)

In October it concluded new wage structures in the fishing industry for the 1987-8 season after negotiations with employers. (FOCUS 71 p.11; Nam 16.10.87)

In the course of the year some of the NUNW unions faced obstruction by conservative unions in their efforts to organise.

MANWU experienced this problem in the construction industry. In August more than 300 workers at an LTA construction site in Windhoek went on a wildcat wage strike. MANWU claimed that its worker committees at LTA were already negotiating with employers when the National Building Workers Union (NBWU) (linked to the pro-MPC National Namibian Trade Union) intervened and proclaimed itself the representative of the workers. MANWU claimed that the NBWU had 'misled workers by giving the impression that it co-operated with MANWU, simply so that they would join the NBWU'. MANWU challenged the union's right to speak for the strikers, saying that it represented only 10 per cent of workers in the building industry, while MANWU's own membership was around 70 per cent. (Nam 7.8.87)

NAFAU experienced similar problems in the fishing industry where a company sought to revive a defunct union, the Fishermen's Union. According to NAFAU, prospective members were promised a union office, free furniture and office equipment. They were also offered job security, a third of their fishing catch and pay increases as a reward for recruiting members from NAFAU. (Nam 16.10.87)

At the Swavleis meat-processing plant in Windhoek a departmental manager set up a rival in-house union, the Food and Allied Workers Union. (Nam 2.10.87)

At the TCL site at Tsumeb, the MUN exposed attempts by the white South West Africa Mineworkers Union (SWAMU) to recruit black membership. It had deducted dues from workers' wages without their knowledge. (Nam 18.12.87)

These developments parallel those in South Africa in the early 1980s when employers set up in-house unions or concluded closed-shop agreements with conservative unions to block the independent unions.

DISPUTES

According to the Institute of Economic Affairs, there were 47 strikes about wages and conditions in Namibia between April and September. (WO 8.8.87)

NAFAU, which earlier in 1987 won several shop floor victories, encountered a hard line from employers in the second half of the year. At a Windhoek fruit and vegetable distributor, Hopleys, 19 members of NAFAU were dismissed after they complained about excessive overtime. At Swavleis, the management dismissed two union members who had played a leading role in strikes at the company in July and October 1986. Management refused to take them back, confirming that their dismissal related to their participation in the strikes. (Nam 6.11.87)

However, NAFAU successfully negotiated the reinstatement of about 20 workers who downed tools at Namib Sugar Distributors in Windhoek in August. Their grievances focussed on wages and lack of transport to and from work. The company agreed to provide transport, and to look into the wage claims. (Nam 14.8.87)

In the mining sector there was continued activity. In December security guards at Consolidated Diamond Mines (CDM) at Oranjemund confiscated R13,000 from a long-standing employee as he was passing through a control point on his way home on leave. They implied that he had come by the money illegally in spite of his protests that it represented his savings and those of several friends, which he was taking home, as well as a small profit gained from selling beer. A sum of R5,000 was subsequently 'deducted' from the money as tax after management consulted the office of the Receiver of Revenue. When the workforce reacted angrily to this treatment and came out on strike for 14 hours the mine management returned the money. (Nam 18.12.87; WA 18/22.12.87)

HOSTEL STRUGGLES

In October the authorities demolished the Katutura hostel. For many years there was a campaign against the hostel, because of its appallingly living conditions. However the demolition was opposed by community organisations, because inadequate provision was made for re-housing the workers who lived there. Organisations also wanted to use the building for community purposes.

At a press conference the NUNW, the Council of Churches in Namibia, the Ai-Gams Action Committee and the Committee for the Preservation and Renovation of the Katutura Hostel pointed out that in addition to housing the 5,000 contract workers employed in Windhoek, the hostel had become a refuge for local unemployed workers and refugees from the war zones in the north. Those who could not be housed in the 200 structures provided as alternative accommodation would be forced to squat illegally or return to the bantustans. They also felt that the authorities' real motive in demolishing the hostel was to expel the unemployed and 'disperse a large labour group because it was a centre of workers' struggle and support for SWAPO'. (WA 5/29.8.87)

In Walvis Bay in July, residents of the Kuisebmond hostel, home to some 550 contract workers, launched a campaign against the 'cruelty' of the local Municipal Police, following a raid on people living there without permits. The residents of the hostel petitioned the municipality for a meeting to discuss a list of 50 demands. These included an end to the use of dogs, teargas and firearms in police raids. They stated that they wanted to establish work-place committees at plants in the town to negotiate about living and working conditions with employers and the municipality. (Namib Times 14.8.87; Nam 25.9.87)

THE WIEHAHN COMMISSION

Concerned by the rising level of labour organisation in Namibia since mid-1986, the South African Administrator-General appointed a Commission of Inquiry into Labour Matters in September. It is chaired by Prof N Wiehahn, who chaired a similar commission in South Africa in the late 1970s.

Unions were concerned that the Commission would recommend restrictions on the unions. They were critical of the committee's composition: not a single worker or trade unionist was appointed. Most of the commissioners were associated with parastatal or government institutions. One is a member of the territory's Labour Council, an official body hostile to the independent unions, and another is an employee of the Rossing Uranium mining company which has also been opposed to unions. (Nam 18.9.87; NN 24.9.87)

In spite of their reservations, the unions affiliated to the NUNW decided in December to test its credibility by presenting evidence to the commission. They decided to demand a minimum wage for all Namibian workers, a duty on employers to recognise and negotiate with majority unions, and the right to pursue trade union activity 'free of victimisation'. (WA 17.12.87)

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