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Whilst Numarwosa/UAW, WPMawu and Mawu were drawing closer in the 1970s, another union, the Motor Industry Combined Workers’ Union (Micwu), viewed Mawu, and to some extent Numarwosa, as competitors.

Micwu was a coloured union which, in the 1970s, had remained in the Tucsa fold. Tucsa’s commitment to black trade unionism over three decades had been erratic, often instrumental and progressively more determined by the policies of the apartheid state. It admitted and expelled, or partially expelled, African and coloured unions from its ranks according to the political exigencies of the day. In the 1950s, when it was competing with Sactu, it grudgingly accepted mixed race unions. It was a moderate non-political federation which upheld free market principles and was principally engaged in orthodox union wage bargaining.⁷² Out of a desire to prevent black workers from falling into communist clutches, it decided to organise black workers in the 1950s and supported the US-backed Federation of Free Trade Unions of SA (Fofatusa). When Sactu leaders were jailed, killed in detention and forced into exile in the early 1960s, it offered no support.

The 1956 Industrial Conciliation Amendment Act which prohibited African workers from joining registered trade unions, had forced coloured and Indian union members into segregated branches controlled by a white executive. This was why Micwu’s coloured workers were originally members of unions parallel to the white Motor Industry Staff Association (Misa), a clerical union, and the Motor Industry Employees’ Union of South Africa (Mieu), a union representing artisans in the motor industry. Both were affiliated to Tucsa although the ultra-conservative Misa later withdrew in opposition to the federation opening up membership to coloured workers. Coloured and Indian workers were permitted to join Mieu as ‘B’ class members, but the white union later introduced coloured parallel membership and represented them on the industrial council.⁷³

By the mid 1960s, grand apartheid was at its height. As the government grew in confidence so Tucsa moved to the right and a number of its unions threatened to disaffiliate unless it mirrored government separatist policies. In response Tucsa expelled its black trade unions in 1969.⁷⁴ Its attitude to the emerging nonracial unions of the 1970s was characterised by the same antipathy it had demonstrated to Sactu.⁷⁵

After Tucsa expelled its black unions, Mieu’s white executive instructed its former coloured members to form their own union, and the result was Micwu, registered in 1970 as a Tucsa affiliate. All its members were artisans, concentrated in Natal and the Western Cape, although later in the 1970s the union extended its scope to include clerical workers. The union soon picked up members in the Eastern Province, the Transvaal, and the Northern Cape, where it established regional offices which operated independently, although the head office formulated policy. By the end of the 1970s, its membership profile differed, depending on the province. In the Western Cape and Natal, coloured and Indian artisans predominated; in the Transvaal and the Eastern Cape a mixture of blue and white collar, mainly coloured, mechanics and mechanic assistants were in the majority; whilst in the Transvaal, from the late 1970s onwards, African repair assistants and petrol pump attendants started to join in numbers. Micwu’s leaders, however, remained mainly coloured and conservative, in the Tucsa tradition.⁷⁶

In all its factories the union relied on closed shop agreements negotiated in the motor industrial council. This meant that all qualified coloured and Indian artisans, motor trimmers, panel beaters, diesel mechanics, auto electricians and vehicle bodybuilders were automatically members. As motor industry artisans worked in small firms scattered across the country, the closed shop enabled the union to build membership with minimal staff and resources. It also meant that little active organisation or recruitment was necessary. There was minimal contact with members (the contrast with the Tuacc unions and their emphasis on worker democracy was sharp). Members joined by filling in a stop order form which was forwarded to the industrial council. Servicing of membership by officials usually entailed a phone call to the employer. No active workplace committees existed, and strikes were unheard of. A former Micwu general secretary, Des East recalls:

We didn’t have a system of shop stewards. This we introduced just before we merged into Numsa [in 1987]. When we took on clerical workers they were the ones who started coming to meetings. Artisans only came to meetings when they were worried about their medical aid, they didn’t need any protection in the workplace. If the employer did anything they didn’t like they’d walk out. When the clerical workers came with their problems, the artisans would stay away from meetings. When Africans came into Micwu, general workers and labourers, then the clerical workers who had now reached a nice level of wages stopped coming to meetings. It was the person with the problems that attended the meetings.⁷⁷

In fairness, Micwu’s African membership was mainly unskilled and spread across the country in small workplaces, which hampered industrial action. Many were petrol pump attendants and employers countered any talk of action by threatening to install self-service pumps.⁷⁸

Unlike Mawu, Micwu was relatively well off. It relied on an efficient industrial council administrative system to which companies submitted membership subscriptions accompanied by a list of members’ names. Its financial standing allowed it to fund all its activities, to occupy well equipped offices, and to employ skilled staff. It built a sound administration which boasted good filing systems including records of membership and of the benefit payments to which each member was entitled.⁷⁹

Micwu bargained in the National Industrial Council for the Motor Industry (Nicmi) which was formed in 1952. By 1979 employer parties to Nicmi consisted of the South African Motor Industry Employers’ Association (Samiea) and the South African Vehicle Builders’ and Repairers Association (Savbra), while the union members were Micwu, Mieu and Misa.⁸⁰ For years, the white unions had used the industrial council and the closed shop to exclude Africans from skilled jobs and prevent them from undercutting white, and to a lesser extent coloured and Indian, artisan pay. They negotiated the reservation of skilled work for registered union members, which by law excluded Africans.

Micwu worked well with the white unions on the council. As East recalls: ‘We would be a united voice. The negotiations were led by the president of Mieu. He was very racist and conservative but he gave the workers a voice. We always worked together in a collective spirit but not on training, that’s where employers always tried to split us.’

Misa and Mieu took a decision not to train coloured workers, and over time this took on the force of law. In fact, the Apprenticeship Act of 1922 did not prevent workers of any colour from signing an apprenticeship contract with an employer, but artisans fell under the apprenticeship board and the Act provided for apprenticeship committees consisting of organised white labour, employers and the department of labour. Mieu and Misa used their seats on the committee to block employer applications to recruit African apprentices.⁸¹ Micwu was excluded from the committees (except in Natal).

Over time, coloured and Indian workers received training by other means. As white artisans moved into white collar jobs, job reservation for coloured and Indian workers was barely enforced, and they were often trained on the job. But African workers were still excluded, an injustice in which Micwu collaborated. ‘We were coloured nationalists in those days,’ commented the former Micwu regional secretary in Natal, Ekki Esau.

In the 1970s, Tucsa, again following the government’s lead, reopened its ranks to unregistered unions and advised affiliates to form African parallels. Thus in the late 1970s Micwu, observing changing trends, decided to recruit Africans into a parallel union. Commented Esau: ‘Micwu formed a parallel union for African workers in about 1978 because we were a registered trade union and weren’t allowed to take in African members at the time. Immediately the new legislation [the Wiehahn laws] came in 1980 we changed our constitution to take in African workers.’

In the 1970s, however, Africans were second class members who could not be party to a closed shop or reap the benefits of the industrial council system. In organising African workers, Micwu ran up against Mawu, which was beginning to organise vehicle body building firms in the Transvaal. Rivalry in some larger companies turned nasty as employers and the state strove to undermine Mawu’s emerging shop floor structures by promoting liaison committees, industrial council bargaining and the recruitment of African workers by Tucsa registered unions. At Henred Freuhauf on the East Rand in early 1980, for example, where Mawu had majority support, management invited Micwu into the factory to address workers. Mawu shop stewards recall this response:

[Ron] Webb [general secretary Micwu] was called in to address workers asking them to join his parallel union. The meeting was held on the factory premises during working hours. The workers emphatically rejected him. Management also tried to persuade workers to either choose Webb’s parallel union or a company union rather than Mawu. Webb also informed management that Mawu caused strikes, sought disruption and received money from Russia and East Germany. The workers refused to resign.⁸²

By the close of the 1970s much greater cooperation existed in the auto and engineering sectors. In the motor sector, however, deep divisions remained.