Strike Tactic

Walkouts vs. apartheid

For the fifth time in two weeks, the black trainee had failed to show up at his job at the Ford Motor Co. plant near South Africa's industrial capital of Port Elizabeth. He had asked for two hours off to answer a summons from the police, but failed to return to work. When a white foreman cautioned Thozamile Botha, 30, an intense former schoolteacher turned black activist who had worked for Ford for less than twelve months, to improve his attendance, Botha snapped, "Why don't you fire me?" He then stalked angrily out of the plant.

That incident last month provoked a strike by 700 skilled black workers at two Ford plants that produce engines and assemble cars. They were soon joined by 800 other black employees of nearby paper and tire factories. The walkout, which continues, stems from no ordinary labor-management dispute. Ford, whose 5,000 employees in South Africa include 1,200 blacks, has been a leader in introducing nondiscriminatory policies like those prescribed in the corporate code of conduct drawn up by U.S. Civil Rights Leader Leon Sullivan. Ford was among the first firms to recognize black unions. Black anti-apartheid organizers have warned that the strike is the first shot in a new offensive against the white-ruled state. The target: multinational firms that do business in the country. The aim: to undermine Prime Minister P.W. Botha's strategy for winning the allegiance of the "black elite" of relatively highly paid skilled workers by giving them a greater share of South Africa's prosperity.

The Prime Minister has announced proposals for sweeping reforms of the racial-classification laws known as petty apartheid. Besides authorizing companies to negotiate with black unions, Botha has proposed the "improvement" of statutes that forbid interracial sex and marriage and make certain public facilities off limits to blacks. While these contemplated steps have won the applause of business leaders, they have not done much as yet to satisfy the 20 million blacks. There has been no change in the white minority government's long-range plan of dividing South Africa into a "constellation" of nominally independent states, in which blacks have the appearance of autonomy but whites continue to hold most of the real power and the wealth.

Instead of concentrating their organizing efforts on black academics, intellectuals or the young, as they have in the past, the leaders of black activist groups in Port Elizabeth and Soweto, the black township outside Johannesburg, are now focusing on factory workers. Because black labor is essential to South Africa's economy, strikes by blacks constitute a potentially powerful weapon. Though Thozamile Botha, who heads the Port Elizabeth Black Civic Organization (PEBCO), concedes that Ford is perhaps the "best" employer of blacks in the country, he has been prodding its management to respond to a long list of demands. He has attacked Ford's sponsorship of an all-white rugby team and special privileges that start new white employees at the top of the pay scale for a given job while blacks start at the bottom. Botha has also complained to Ford's management about black political disenfranchisement, over which the company has no control.

Before the strike, Ford responded warily to Botha's provocations, and kept him on the payroll despite his repeated absences. Since the walkout, the company has said it will rehire any of the strikers who want to return. Only a minority, however, have gone back to their jobs. Last week police raided the homes of strikers; 19 of them were placed in detention. Meanwhile, other firms are bracing for trouble. Says a director of a leading U.S. manufacturer: "We could definitely be a helpless target for these protests. South Africa is going to have to satisfy the aspirations of these people, or they are just going to come through the fences."

Yet if he moves to appease black workers, Prime Minister Botha risks the wrath of Afrikaner hardliners, who abhor his apartheid reforms. Soon after Thozamile Botha's walkout, white union members held an angry meeting that led to an outburst of racial slurs; blacks were accused of "fouling" integrated toilets and making insulting remarks about white women. If the government cracks down hard on the protesters, as it did to quell the rioting in Soweto in 1976, it might spark more unrest. Predicts Fred Ferreira, Ford's industrial relations manager: "Inactivity is not going to solve this problem. Whether we get a black or a white backlash is simply a matter of time."

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