Durban dock strike
Sir, —R. Sinke’s letter regarding the Durban dock strike presents only one side of this argument. It may be true that African dockworkers earn SNZ9.SO a week, but he has omitted one over-rid-ing factor: the cost of living in South Africa. The wage
rate is totally unrelated without this knowledge. One would consider a dockworker’s wage, at approximately $6OOO per annum in New Zealand, to be reasonably adequate, but in the United States, where the cost of living varies from two to three times as much, this would be considered a pitiful wage; in fact an average typist would earn as much in a 40-hour week. To R. Sinke this may be a “pittance” but an African dock worker may well survive on these earnings. Why do Africans from Rhodesia, Mozambique, and Bechuanaland come to South Africa seeking employment if the wages are so pitiful? — Yours, etc., PANDA. October 26, 1972.
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Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33060, 30 October 1972, Page 14
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154Durban dock strike Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33060, 30 October 1972, Page 14
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