White S. African miners get more pay; blacks riot

While some 12,000 black miners protested low wages in the fifth day of rioting here, employers and union leaders representing 22,000 white miners reached a compromise 12 percent pay rise and averted a threatened strike in gold and coal mines.

Employers had warned a strike would plunge the gold- and coal-mining industries into chaos. The pay settlement followed an 11th-hour appeal to both sides by Energy and Mineral Affairs Minister F. W. de Klerk. White mineworkers earn an average $1,035 a month; black mineworkers earn $174 a month.