The year 1987 was a period of unprecedented strike activity in the labour movement, including in Numsa, partly because of a short-lived recovery in manufacturing. The country was also in the grip of a state of emergency. Township community organisation had been crushed through the banning of meetings, widespread detentions, restrictions on individuals, night curfews making meetings difficult, and a police and military presence in townships which stamped out organisation through intimidation and arrests.

Into this political vacuum, Cosatu spearheaded internal opposition and became a target. Its Johannesburg headquarters were bombed and attacks on union offices became more common. Striking railway workers were shot on the street, tough union restrictions were introduced in an amendment to the Labour Relations Act, and Cosatu was restricted from engaging in political activity. Inevitably, government's spirit of no compromise coloured Nicisemi talks. With a larger, better-resourced union still committed to the living wage campaign, Numsa members mobilised around 1987 Industrial Council negotiations.

Council talks opened with the IMF unions again tabling common demands. As 300 union supporters, including shop steward chairs from every former Mawu engineering plant, looked on, Numsa demonstrated the extent to which large companies which dominated the metal industry were making profits well above the inflation rate – the average earnings of 144 companies which reported in February that year had risen by more than 30 per cent. Many had achieved this by restructuring their operations through the introduction of new technology, working methods and retrenchments. Numsa told how, with the closure of many smaller factories, 110 000 metal jobs had been lost since 1982. Finally, the union argued that even the Household Subsistence Level, which was inadequate for workers’ needs, stood at R425,20 per month while the metal industry's minimum wage was R399,90. Numsa demanded a R4 an hour living wage.

Numsa's other demands echoed those of previous years and included a 40-hour week because through apartheid planning workers travelled an average of four hours a day, worked nine hours, slept seven and had a meagre four hours left in which to cater for domestic chores and leisure.