PART 2
The trade unions
Then something good happened. There was a certain lady from Cape Town
who was a trade unionist. She was Ray Alexander. In 1948 she came to
Port Elizabeth and she came to talk to us at the factory about trade
unions and about how to organize the workers. She came to the factory
at lunchtime one day and she called all those of us who were outside
having lunch. She held a meeting with us. She told us that she's the
organizing secretary, general secretary of the food and canning union
and she wants to open a branch here. We were very interested to listen
to her, and she told us everything how the unions work. She was a very
brave lady. She was always organizing the workers. She began to come
to the factory every day to talk to us. Then she picked some people from
the workers to help her organize the other workers, and she picked me.
I started organizing since that time!
Before then I didn't know anything about trade unions except what I
read in the paper about unions like that of Kadalie. Then, when Ray came
to Port Elizabeth, was the first time for me to organize a trade union.
Ray was that sort of woman who wanted the people to organize since that
time. She made me laugh the other day during my ban, when I was banned
for five years. She stayed in Cape Town, and I never knew if she was
coming to Port Elizabeth or not. One Sunday morning I felt that I wanted
to go to church, to be surrounded with people, something like that, even
though my ban said I mustn't do that. The church was a little bit down
the road from my house, not far, so I walked down there and I went inside.
I was sitting there with all the people when my one son came in and was
looking for me. I wondered what could this mean, and he said, 'Mother,
there are some people who want to speak to you".
Hoo! I got such a fright! I thought it's the special branch again -
they're such a nuisance, and here they are after me again. What do they
want now? I walked out of the church and up the road to my house. When
I got there, Ray was standing at the gate at my house. She said, Trances!
Where are you from? What do you want there? What do you want listening
to one-man pe-pe-pe? What about my work?' She said to me, 'How can you
do this? Look, the women are not organized. Heh! You go there to the
church; you listen to one-man pe-pe-pe-ing? Nonsense!' But we laughed
it out.
It was Ray who helped us to start the trade union in the canning factories
in Port Elizabeth. She taught us how to run the union, and we learnt
administration and taking minutes, how to chair a meeting, and about
shop stewards and so on, so that the union should be properly run. She
was a wonderful person, Ray Alexander. We used to call her our mother.
When the government banned her in 1953, the workers came out on strike
to say no, they can't do this to our mother, they cannot make her leave
the trade unions like this. She is a very wonderful woman.
We found it was not so difficult to get the workers interested in the
trade union because they knew that they were getting very little money,
and when the union was telling them that 'If you are united you can fight
for more wages,' they knew they must come together to make things better.
We used to have meetings at lunch time at the factory to talk to the
workers. Not all the workers had lunch at the same time, and so we had
to have little meetings all at different times.
After a time we decided that we must now have our own somebody to look
after the workers, we must have a committee and a secretary for ourselves,
a person who can organize the workers. So we had a meeting in a big hall
and many of the workers were called to that meeting. When the workers
got there, we decided that someone must be elected for the office. I
was the first person to be elected for organizing secretary in Port Elizabeth,
for the African Food and Canning Workers Union. Then I had to leave the
factory and go to work at the trade union office. There were three of
us women working at the office. We had a big office in Korsten - that
was a coloured area there -and the coloured desk was this side, and the
African desk this side, in the same office.
You see, there were really two unions there, the one for coloured people
and the one for Africans, because there was this law from the government
that would not allow us to be one union, So there was my union, the African
Food and Canning Workers Union, and then there was the Food and Canning
Workers Union. But we worked together all the time like we were one union.
We always had our meetings and discussions together, and all our strikes
we did together too.
All the people on the committee were taught those things that I had
learnt, organizing and taking minutes and so on. We! Used to have meetings
just for the executive and someone would come and talk to us about the
trade union movement, how we must organize, how we must have a chairman,
and procedure for the meeting and so on. There was somebody who lived
in Port Elizabeth who used to come and give us these lectures. But after
SACTU had started, there would sometimes be a joint meeting for all the
unions under SACTU. We would come together one day, then maybe someone
would come from Cape Town to talk to us. And from all these things, when
we have to address the workers, we know automatically what to say and
what to do.
Sometimes I would prepare a speech when I was to address the workers,
but mostly I just talk, and everything comes out. I spoke in English
mainly because I didn't know Xhosa well yet, so I couldn't express myself
quite properly in Xhosa. When I spoke in English, most of the workers
understood me, but sometimes we used to get an interpreter, and then
I spoke English and he would translate into Xhosa. When I spoke to the
coloured workers then I spoke English because most of the coloured people,
they speak Afrikaans, but they understand English too. The biggest problem
that we had in organizing at these factories was that they are seasonal
factories. When it is fruit season then they have a lot of work, and
when the season goes, they usually let the workers go, dismiss them,
because there isn't much work to do. Then the workers go and lay down
at their homes, or look for some other jobs. The apricots were done in
a short season because they get spoiled quickly, but the pines took a
little longer. The whole season used to last about six months, or maybe
a little more, from December to about the end of June.
So it was six months at the factory, and six months laid off. And during
that time it was just like we are now, looking for jobs, looking, looking.
Of course there was another factory there, the orange factory, and the
oranges used to take a little longer than at our factories, so some of
the girls, when they see that they are being put off at the one factory,
they leave and look for work at the orange factory. Nearly every week
they used to dismiss workers as the work gets less and less. They dismiss
the workers, tell them there's no more work, and leave those few who
can manage to do those little jobs which are left.
Then when the season comes back again the workers go back to the factory.
But it was not the same people working at the factory each year; they
hire anyone who comes to look for work. The first people to come there
get a job. And so each year we must start educating the workers again.
Some of the people who were in the union would be hired again, and they
reinforce the workers to go into the trade union. Every year we used
to get some new people on the committee too, because those others were
perhaps gone, or they won't be taken back into the factory when work
starts again because the managers know them now as union people. Mostly
when you go back to the factory they want to take new people.
Every lunch hour during the fruit season I had to go to the factories
and talk to the workers and listen to any complaints, which they had.
They had lots of complaints about workmen's compensation, people being
paid the wrong wages, or maybe the management is taking money off someone's
wages when they shouldn't, and like I said, there were never enough of
those aprons and gloves to go round. Also, most of the workers in the
union were women, and we used to have these problems like maternity leave
and so on too.
There were two factories there which were doing the same work and which
belonged to the same union. The one was near the African township, and
the other was at the coloured township. We often used to combine the
workers from these two factories when we have a meeting. For a while
we just used to tell the workers at the factory that we are going to
have a meeting and they must come, but after a time when we had elected
office bearers and everything, we got some office equipment too. We started
making pamphlets to organize the meetings and tell people about them.
That's, how we kept on working, together with the coloured girls.
At the meetings or at the factories, the workers would tell us their
complaints, and we see what are the worst problems. Sometimes we have
a complaint, which we must take to the management with the committee.
We had a committee in each factory. When I get to the one factory they
tell me this and this is wrong, and then I talk to the other committee
as well, and then the two committees decide that we have to see the management.
That was how the two sides worked together all the time.
It was whenever the season was strong and there was lots of fruit coming
into the factory that we bring a lot of complaints because then we knew
that the management would just help, help, and give us what we want because
he can't afford that we should stop work at that time.
But sometimes the management would not give us what we want. They say
no, they are not going to do anything about our problems. Then the workers
have a meeting, and we take a vote with all the members of the union.
They put up their hands at the meeting, yes they want this strike, or
no they don't want it. Maybe they take a decision that we are going to
strike if what we want from the employers is not met. We go back to the
management, even if it is for high wages, or anything, and if he doesn't
want to take up our grievances, then the only alternative we have is
to strike. We used to try again, try to talk to them because we didn't
like strikes because the workers used to be dismissed and some used to
be arrested when we went on strike so we always try to talk to the management
first. If we have strike, all the workers would stand outside the factory.
Nobody would go in. And those who wanted to go in, they were afraid of
the others, and we did not allow them to work, because where you are
fighting for high wages, when the money goes up everyone is going to
get it, so everyone must support the strike.
The workers would tell other people in the townships 'There's a strike
at such-and-such a place, and not a single person must go there and look
for work.' So then the other people would not go there for scab labour.
If the union had enough money we used to pay the workers something while
they were on strike, a little something to keep them up until that time
when the strike is over. But ours was a fruit factory, so the management
couldn't afford to let the workers stay out too long because all the
fruit goes rotten. They didn't even want things to go as far as having
a strike.
At some other factories the management used to try to dismiss all the
workers who were on strike, but they didn't do that at our factory. But
he used to say that he doesn't like this and this committee, and then
perhaps he would dismiss the whole committee so that the workers can
elect another committee. Maybe he hopes that a new committee won't make
so many problems for him. But of course, when he dismissed the committee
we used to fight, and sometimes we used to win the case, and they were
reinstated. But sometimes they were just dismissed.
It wasn't only during a strike that they dismissed people like that.
When the management realized what we were doing, and that we wanted more
monies and better conditions, he began to dismiss those workers in the
factory that he thought were very strong and who were making the workers
understand more about trade unions. Sometimes they used to dismiss the
whole committee and say there's no work. Now why should you go and dismiss
this committee who are working very hard when there are some other workers
who are not doing their work properly, but they are not dismissed? Just
like that?
We had that trouble sometimes when we elect somebody to the committee
to replace others, and that person would say, 'No, we refuse, because
then if we are elected to the committee, what's the use, they will just
dismiss us.'
But we had to carry on. I remember Mr. Alien. When I was at H. Jones
he was my foreman. He was always after me, trying to interfere - I don't
know why - perhaps he thought I was politically minded or so because
we never wanted to do what they wanted us, the workers, to do. We always
wanted things to be better. It was because of him saying that I was difficult
that I was laid off, even though I was a supervisor. He thought I was
cheeky and troublesome. But the union sorted that out for me, and they
had to reinstate me.
All this time things were going very nicely for us in that little house
in New Brighton until in 1952, my husband suddenly passed away. He was
at the factory, ne, and he fell. He got ill, with a headache or something,
and they took him to hospital. They let me know he's not well, that he's
at the hospital. I went to see him at the hospital, and I found when
I got there that he had already passed away. He just collapsed. I think
it was high blood pressure and a heart attack. It was such a shock. I
couldn't understand so young a person to die like that of high blood
pressure. And so quick too. And suddenly I was alone in the house to
look after the children.
It was very difficult for me to work and to look after two small children.
But fortunately since I was working, I had some money so I could support
the children and pay the rent. I always managed all right even though
it was very difficult. After a time, Eleanor came to live with me in
Port Elizabeth and she brought her two children with her. We stayed together
for a time and that was better because she looked after the children.
But then she went back to Kimberley to look for work, and she left her
children with me also. Then it was only me to look after four children,
and I had to hire another girl to come and stay with me to look after
them.
After a time the management of Langeberg allowed us to have meetings
of the union at the factory. This was very good because the workers didn't
have to travel somewhere else for meetings. But then when they were not
so happy with the work we were doing in the factory they started to make
things difficult for me. They told me I was not allowed onto their premises
any more. This was during the time when I was branch secretary for the
union. It was my job to talk to the workers, so I had to wait outside
the factory and when the workers come out I would talk to them there.
Fortunately the union was already strong at the time, so they couldn't
break it like they wanted to.
It was not always easy working with the trade union. And it was not
only the management that gave us trouble, but the special branch too.
Hoo! The special branch were such a nuisance, always wanting to stick
their noses in here and here, making things difficult for us. Hawu!
We had our offices there in Korsten. It was a coloured area, but we
had our offices together, African and coloured. Then came this legislation,
which was passed in parliament, the Group Areas Act.
This Group Areas Act was .a terrible thing. It was so us Africans were
told not to be in a coloured area any more. The police came to raid our
office where we were, to tell us the coloureds must be alone there, and
the Africans must move. We didn't want to separate ourselves. We had
worked together for a long time. But they came to our office and they
told me I must take my union somewhere in the location.
It was impossible to move to the location because it is very far for
the workers to go from the factory for meetings and complaints during
lunch times and so forth. Korsten was most central for those workers
at Jones and at Langeberg and they used to come to the offices. So we
decided to stay in Korsten. We refused to separate. And because we stayed
together the special branch used to watch us. They used to run after
us. Every time we want to hold a meeting, they would be there, at the
place, watching us. We don't even know who told them we are having a
meeting; we just see them there. If we wish to hide ourselves and go
and have our meeting somewhere they don't know, they will hunt the whole
night until they find us, or they don't find us. That was how we held
our meetings. Sometimes when they found us they would charge us with
public nuisance or something. Then you must go to the charge office,
and then to the magistrate's court where maybe you will be fined, or
maybe discharged. But most of the time they used to disperse the meeting,
or maybe take our names and tell the people to go home.
I had lots of trouble with the police that time! Once I went to Cape
Town to address the workers at a factory. Before I even spoke to the
workers the management called the special branch and they had to make
me leave immediately. I understand after that they came to the trade
union offices looking for a Mr. Baard. And so they missed their case
because the people at the office, they didn't say, 'No, we haven't got
a Mr. Baard, but we've got a Mrs. Baard'; they just said, 'We don't know
anyone of that name.'
Another time I went to organize some workers at East London. We used
to do a lot of organizing at East London, talking to the workers and
so on to help them there because they were not as well organized as
our branch. When I got to East London, I thought well, the best thing
to do, since there is this permit thing, I must go to the commissioner's
office and get a permit. So I was given a permit so I could stay for
the weekend, or for a few days maybe, without I must worry about the
police. Early the next morning I was still sleeping at the hotel. I
heard - shoo! Loud! — 'The police! The police! The police!' They
were | checking the hotel. I thought, well there's no worry this time;
I've got a permit now. They were going from room to room checking the
permits of the other people and leaving them. All that time they wanted
me! When they came to me at last I took out my permit, and I thought
no, it's all right, I've got a permit. They look at my permit. Then they
look at me. Then the one says, 'Kom aan [come on]. We want you.' 'Ag
what for now? I've got a permit mos.'
Well, I was taken to the charge office and I was charged there, I don't
know what for because they didn't catch me at the factory or anything,
they just caught me at the hotel where I was sleeping. I didn't even
address any meetings yet. The magistrate gave me one hour to leave East
London. No more. So I had to leave then and go straight back to Port
Elizabeth again.
The minister of labour was always saying that he's going to bleed the
African workers' unions; he's going to bleed them to death. That's why
they didn't give us a chance, that's why the police were going after
us like that the whole time. The one time at a meeting, a policeman came
with his gun and he put it rights here, near us, pointing at us. 'I am
taking your finger-prints.' With the gun right they’re next to
us! What does he think we are going to do to him? But all this trying
to make us scared and making things difficult for us, it didn't work
because we still managed to organize the workers during those troubled
times. And when we worked together with the other organizations, then
things were even better.
In 1959 the ANC had a boycott of Nationalist companies and their products
- certain cigarettes, tea, wine, and things', which were made by the
Nationalist companies. We were not going to buy these things, which were
making the Nationalists so rich, and we stayed so poor. We decided that
Langeberg should be boycotted too because they were so against the trade
union, and were making things so hard for the workers.
The management got very frightened because the ANC had many supporters
and they didn't want all these people to boycott them. So they had to
agree with what we wanted, and they had to agree to cooperate with the
union. It was a big victory we won there, to get the union recognized
like that. It was a good thing that came from working together with the
ANC.
Soon after that the government introduced this thing of the wage determination
and the management used this to try and reduce our wages. It was a big
piece they wanted to take from our wages. We were not going to allow
them to do this. They even tried to tell the men that the women
had accepted the cuts already when they had done no such thing. But we
did not let them divide us like that. They insisted that they were going
to cut the wages. And the workers still said no, they couldn’t
do this. They even tried to lock the workers out of the factory. But
the workers were too strong for them and we still had all that support
from the ANC, so after a time the management had to agree that they would
not make the cuts in the wages. That was a good victory too.
