Remembering the first labour strike in Richards Bay

WHEN then Alusaf (Bayside Aluminium Smelter) started operations at Richards Bay on 1 April 1971, the minimum wage for an unskilled labourer was 15 cents an hour.

In that year the price of a loaf of brown bread cost 12 cents.

On 30 March, 1973, Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi, Chief Minister of the KwaZulu Legislative Assembly, banned all black workers from taking up employment at the smelter.

The first industry in Richards Bay was doomed. Amashenge Buthelezi urged all Africans to boycott Alusaf permanently.

He said workers who replaced the strikers would be ‘cutting their own throats in terms of the struggle for the black man in South Africa’.

Some 1 000 black workers at Bayside went on strike for higher wages, although no formal wage increase demands were made prior to the strike.

The South African Defence Force was asked to step in to prevent the very first strategic industry in Richards Bay from closing down.

Some one hundred young white army recruits on national service worked in the plant, replacing the strikers.

The youngsters immediately stepped up production to record levels.

Management threatened to dismiss all the striking employees as the strike was clearly illegal.

On account of the company’s reputation as a ‘People’s Company’ and the employment of black artisans and black graduates, plus paid in-house training, saw hundreds of black workers throughout Zululand streaming to Bayside to take up the positions vacated by the strikers.

The politicians, then Nongoma stepped in.

Ultimatum

Prince Buthelezi commented: ‘I thought South Africa had outgrown this sort of tactic.’

After the announcement of four cents per hour (thirty two cents per day) wage increase, an ultimatum to resume work was ignored by the strikers, who were then dismissed.

However, they all returned to work on  2 April 1973 and the seven-day illegal strike was over.

But on Sunday, 25 March 1973 there was a riot.

Black employees left their work stations and congregated on the soccer field next to the plant, shouting the ancient Zulu battle cry ‘uSuthu!’ – last heard during the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879 and the Bhambatha Rebellion in 1906.

The strikers stoned two members of management who tried to intervene, and the police were called in. They declined to intervene in what they labelled a labour dispute.

The next day Prince Senzo Zulu and a deputation of three strikers, plus the Bantu Affairs Commissioner, arrived at the plant.

The strikers demanded that Barney Dladla, the Councillor for Community Affairs in the KwaZulu Legislative Assembly, negotiate on their behalf for higher wages and other benefits.

Management was astonished to hear of this ‘impertinence’, because KwaZulu was regarded as a separate ‘homeland government’ with no say in the affairs of Richards Bay.

The Department of Labour confirmed this.

Management however indicated that the wage rates would be reviewed, on condition all strikers return to work.

Two days later Dladla telephoned management with a request to visit the plant on 30 March to negotiate improvements to worker conditions of employment.

He was told the company would make a unilateral wage offer to the workers.

Dladla was welcome to inspect the wage records, but would not be allowed to negotiate on behalf of workers as negotiations took place at the National Industrial Council.

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Astute politician

Dladla was an astute politician. He threatened management with adverse publicity and also threatened to contact shareholders in Switzerland (Alusuisse) to force them to sell their 22% shareholding in the company.

At 5pm the improved wage structure was published in Zulu and in English. All due wages would be paid out in cash.

A final ultimatum was issued to all strikers to resume duties on 28 March or face dismissal.

Only 110 employees resumed duty. They were willing to work under ‘siege conditions’.

Dladla arrived at the Alusaf plant at 10am on 30 March and addressed the strikers near the plant.

Prince Senzo Zulu joined Dladla and three striker representatives in a tense meeting with management.

Management told Dladla that he was free to discuss the wage issue, that the Company had nothing to hide as it already paid higher wages than the rates applicable in Durban after the strikes.

Management was not prepared to ‘negotiate’ anything with him because he had no legal standing outside the homeland.

The minimum wage rate in 1973 was 24 cents per hour – R11.52 per week or R50 per month.

Dladla was not impressed. He demanded another increase on top of the increase already announced by management. He would even accept one cent per hour more.

Should management fail to do so, he would place a ban on all future employment of black workers at Alusaf, forcing the plant to close down.

Management – though shocked – refused to budge.

Dladla then told the mass meeting that management flatly refused to negotiate with him and that the KwaZulu Government will, with immediate effect, ban all blacks from ever working at Alusaf.

This was not the news that the strikers wanted to hear. They wanted to work and threatened Dladla.
That afternoon all the strikers were dismissed and all monies owing to them paid out.

Selective re-employment of employees started the next day and on 2 April, 1973 the strike was over.
Most of the strikers were re-employed.

Influence

The Alusaf strike had a very positive influence on industrial relations, as well as the later careers of ANC activists.

Alusaf Shop Steward Jeffrey Vilane, the President of the Metal and Allied Workers’ Union (MAWU), Shop Steward Bekhi Ntuli, later ANC Regional Secretary (Alusaf sponsored Ntuli to obtain a certificate in business management at the University of Cape Town), and Willies Mchunu, later the seventh Premier of KZN, later negotiated a Recognition and Procedural Agreement with management.

Mike Mabuyakhulu, later ANC Economic Development MEC in KZN for 17 years, was active on behalf of MAWU during disciplinary appeal hearings.

Negotiations followed for a formal wage agreement and negotiations at the National Industrial Council for 3 000 companies in the metallurgical industry.

Many other companies copied these agreements.

Alusaf became a 97% unionised plant with five trade unions.

Industrial peace lasted for many years and Alusaf received international recognition for the technical training and the development of workers.

Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi, Barney Dladla, JC van der Walt and Prince Senzo Zulu reached an amicable settlement of the labour dispute at the KwaZulu Legislative Assembly offices at Nongoma during April, 1973.

The ban on blacks working for Bayside Aluminium was then lifted.

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