DIVISIONS OF LABOR - RACIST TRADE-UNIONISM IN THE IRON, STEEL, ENGINEERING AND METALLURGICAL INDUSTRIES OF POSTWAR SOUTH-AFRICA

This article argues that conflict over the role of white labour in the political economy of South Africa continued in the post-Second World War period. It shows that, with the introduction of mechanised product ion processes, the maintenance of the industrial colour bar was a majo r source of concern for leaders of white labour. This connected with a struggle within white labour over the value of interventions by the N ationalist government to extend the privileged position built up by th e craft unions to Afrikaans-speaking whites lower down the occupationa l ladder. The eventual compromise that was reached between Afrikaans a nd English-speaking labour leaders and officials, sewed to reinforce t he exclusion of blacks from apprenticeships. Throughout the 1960s the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of South Africa (SEIFSA) f aced escalating pay demands from artisans, whose skills were becoming more thinly spread as industry advanced. SEIFSA sought to economise on labour costs by phasing white labour out of operative grades, a move which the state owned Iron and Steel Corporation finally endorsed in 1 976. The degeneration of trade unionism among whites in South Africa i nto open racism in the light of pressures for changes in the racial di vision of labour made the 'moderate trade unionism espoused by the Tra de Union Council of South Africa untenable.