Work was halted in the biggest auto region--the Eastern Cape province--as well as at plants near Durban and Pretoria. The shutdown will put extra pressure on several plants producing cars for export contracts. Auto manufacturing makes up a large part of South Africa's economy, employing about 30,000 workers. The country's annual wage negotiating season peaks in July and August, when several long-term contracts expire.

"The union will not settle for an unacceptable compromise that will not give workers decent wages," said NUMSA spokesperson Dumisa Ntuli. He called the first day of the walkout, accompanied by protests, pickets and toyi-toying, "a resounding success."

Dave Kirby, a spokesman for the Automobile Manufacturers Employers' Organization, which represents the major auto bosses, complained that the strike would have "serious consequences for the local economy and further negatively influence foreign perceptions about labor stability in South Africa."

NUMSA is demanding a 12 percent wage increase, and wants the current three-year contract system changed so that wages are negotiated every two years. The employers are offering a 7.5 percent wage increase.

Current inflation levels in South Africa are hovering, officially, at about 6.5 percent. Almost no industrial contracts, however, include automatic increases to compensate for spikes in prices, let alone the inflationary consequences of a currency that is steadily declining against the dollar and the euro.

A day after the auto strike began, members of two unions struck Highveld Steel and Vanadium, the country's second-largest steel manufacturer, which is majority-owned by Anglo American Corp.

About 3,000 NUMSA members and 1,100 members of Mineworkers Union-Solidarity are demanding wage increases ranging from 10 percent to 15 percent, against a company offer of 8 percent. The unions are also demanding progress on health-care subsidies, housing subsidies, overtime pay, and leaves for shop stewards to attend to union activity.

The Highveld strike follows a settlement at Iscor, the biggest steel producer in the country, where 15,000 workers had begun a strike in the form of general meetings in plants on August 3. The company agreed to wage increases of 7 percent for the highest-paid workers, and 9 percent for the lowest paid.

Meanwhile, a planned strike by 50,000 gold miners against three companies--Gold Fields, Harmony, and Durban Roodepoort Deep, was called off after the first two agreed to increase the monthly minimum wage to 2,000 rands per month (about US$240) and increase annual leave to 25 days. Durban Roodepoort's minimum wage will rise to R1,600 a month (US$192) and brings leave days to 24 a year by 2003. The companies also agreed to provide some medical care for miners who have contracted HIV/AIDS, increased training for women, and longer meal breaks.

These strikes--and the gains registered when the bosses blinked as walkouts loomed--underline the fact that the working class in South Africa, the strongest contingent of the industrial proletariat south of the Sahara, has plenty of fighting capacity. That fighting spirit is scheduled to be on display once again at the end of this month.  
 
 
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