Violence against striking railway workers, over 30 of whom were killed during a 12-week strike, has focused attention on the use of police and strike-breakers in industrial disputes.
The three-year long struggle by the South African Railway and Harbour Workers Union (SARHWU) for union recognition and decent pay and working conditions was finally resolved at the end of January. South African Transport Services (SATS) agreed to recognise SARHWU and bargain with the union in areas where it obtained registration under industrial law. Following an earlier dispute in 1987 four SARHWU members were sentenced to death for the killing of four strike-breakers.
The most recent strike began in November when the SATS management refused to meet a committee of SARHWU representatives to discuss their grievances, on the grounds that SARHWU was not registered. The countrywide industrial action which followed resulted in some 23,000 dismissals out of a union estimate of 40,000 on strike. The total workforce is estimated to be 80,000.
The SARHWU National Negotiating Committee met SATS three times in November but SATS insisted that the wage claim and disciplinary procedures had been negotiated in April under the SATS Conditions of Services Act and therefore were not open for renewed debate until May 1990.
SARHWU members have faced a barrage of violent intimidation and attacks from strike-breakers and police who have, according to union reports, been assisting SATS management by complicity in actions against the strikers. At Mzimphlope on 6 November Labius CHIHAWE was shot by a SATS supervisor, Benjamin MAMAKOLO was shot by a SATS employee on 15 November on Jeppe station and the following day 17-year-old, Elizabeth RANKUWA, was shot when a ticket inspector opened fire on strike supporters on Johannesburg station.
Union offices have also been attacked. On 16 November two workers were shot and five arrested on charges of public violence inside SARHWU offices in Germiston when police raided the premises to break up a strike meeting. One man later died. On 14 December 300 men armed with sticks and knives attacked SARHWU offices in COSATU House in Empangeni near Durban.
At least four people were seriously wounded when police shot into a crowd of over three thousand strikers in Umlazi, Durban, and another 50 were injured when police opened fire on strikers at Salt River Station, Cape Town, on 12 December. Twelve people were reported injured and taken to Groote Schuur Hospital where they were placed under police guard.
Following the notices of dismissal, many of the migrant workers housed in SATS hostels were given notice of eviction and hostels also came under attack from anti-union squads. Thousands of other migrant workers showed their support by boycotting trains to the rural areas over the Christmas period. SARHWU later won an application from the Rand Supreme Court preventing further evictions unless SATS had obtained a court order.
Passengers who tried to show solidarity with the strikers also came under attack. On 8 December on Braamfontein station armed 'vigilantes' dressed in SATS uniforms attacked township residents without tickets who were supporting the strike by refusing to pay fares. At least 15 people were seriously injured.
On 9 January several hundred union members arrived by train for a union report-back meeting in Germiston. They were attacked by assailants in SATS uniforms, at least four of whom were identified by the union as being police. The union said there were up to one thousand attackers, armed with machetes, knives, short spears, sticks and stones. According to witnesses, police fired teargas into train carriages, thereby forcing strikers onto the platform and preventing them from sheltering. Police denied they had stood by and allowed the massacre to continue, although they made no arrests during or after the attack.
This was not the last incident of police harassment of strikers — on 11 January police broke up a number of SARHWU meetings in the Pretoria area and arrested and charged a number of strikers.
A basis for the settlement of the strike was agreed on 26 January between SARHWU, SATS and the Independent Mediation Services, who issued a statement that, ‘All dismissed and striking workers will return to employment in the same grade, in the same job and at the same wage as applied to them at the commencement of the strike.’ This was subject to applications being received by 6 February.
