ZIMBABWE: The National Engineering Workers’ Union, affiliate of the IMF, and Zimbabwe Metal, Energy and Allied Workers’ Union have launched a campaign this month to force employers to pay workers decent wages.

In September 2008, history was made in Zimbabwe when three political parties, including the ruling ZANU/PF, signed a power-sharing agreement called the GLOBAL AGREEMENT. This agreement promotes power sharing between the three parties. While many ordinary Zimbabweans argue the agreement has not benefited them, for metalworkers and their families things are changing.

After the agreement was reached, the new minister of finance announced that the official trading currency in Zimbabwe will be US Dollars and other foreign currencies such as South African RANDS and Botswana Pula, however many companies continue paying workers with the valueless ZIM Dollar or in many cases fail to pay workers at all.

In April NEWU won an arbitration award that compels employers to increase workers’ minimum salaries from US$100 to US$150. This was a big victory for many workers, however a large number of employers are still resisting compliance. Due to the lack of enforcement of the award, the unions have launched the campaign and are directly engaging with employers to ensure payment of the increased wages.

The increases are changing lives in Zimbabwe as many workers and their family can at least now afford a decent meal of their choice, as compared with six months ago when they were paid by food parcels. One worker commented that even though $100 is still very little, it is much better than been paid by food parcels of low quality; now he can choose better quality food for his family.

For the union the situation is also getting better as 50 per cent of employers are submitting subscriptions to the union and the union is able to pay allowances for some of their staff members. Nevertheless, the situation is still not normal, especially for the other unions. For ZMEAWU the majority of the companies they are organizing are owned by local businesses and these are the same people who are supporting the Mugabe regime and they therefore do not want to deduct subscription from workers on behalf of the union.

INDIA:  After the death of six shipbreaking workers in Alang on August 4, the local trade union representing 5,000 shipbreaking workers called on the Factories Inspector to investigate the incident and the Chief Minister and High Court of Gujarat to undertake a judicial enquiry and immediately intervene on the health, safety, welfare and environment at the shipbreaking yards.

The six workers died on the spot from burns sustained while working in the engine room of a vessel being dismantled at plot number 24-0 of the Alang shipbreaking yards. No precaution had been taken by the employer to ensure the engine room was free from gas and fit for cutting operations.  Measures taken after the accident were also completely inadequate.

Alang Sosiya Ship Recycling and General Workers’ Association (ASSRGWA), representing the workers, demanded that the government of Gujarat ensures:

• Strict compliance with the Supreme Court of India’s directions on safe ship recycling issued in September 2007;
• A judicial inquiry into the fatal accident that occurred on August 4, 2009 causing the deaths of six workers;
• Compensation of a million rupees (US$20,000) to the family of each deceased worker; and
• Representation of the Workers’ Association on the Gujarat Maritime Board and other regulating and enforcement authorities.

The Workers’ Association had previously represented the workers before a committee of technical experts on shipbreaking, which resulted in the Supreme Court directing various government bodies and stakeholders to take effective measures on health and safety, welfare and the environment. In August 2008, the Workers’ Association made representation to the Gujarat Maritime Board requesting compliance with the Court’s ruling.

"Though there are regulating and enforcement authorities, no adequate attention is being paid by these organisations to the suffering of the thousands of shipbreaking workers," said ASSRGWA President Shanti Patel at a press conference on August 11.

"The apathy and almost criminal negligence on the part of the stakeholders in complying with rulings on health, safety, welfare and the environment is instrumental in the increase in the number of fatal and major accidents in the shipbreaking yards in Alang," said Patel.

Vidyadhar Rane, ASSRGWA General Secretary, has submitted complaints to various relevant authorities and visited the family members of the victims offering the union’s full support.

Over the years, economists and political analysts have predicted Zimbabwe’s collapse as just around the corner, diagnosing the country like it is a terminally ill patient, but they have been proved wrong time and again as Mugabe’s regime refuses to die. The world has watched as the rights of Zimbabweans are trampled on through the election fiasco and public opinion would be with the people of Zimbabwe should they rise up and revolt.

 Zimbabweans might wait forever if they think the solution will come from outside the country. Mugabe has claimed victory in a stolen election process while world governments and regional and international structures are baffled on what do about Zimbabwe.

How Mugabe stole the elections is quite incredible. Zimbabweans proved their respect for the democratic process, peacefully going to the polls in the March parliamentary and presidential elections. The first ominous sign was the painfully slow release of election results whilst authorities paired off reports of Zanu PF defeat in parliamentary seats with the news of a win. Then after a long and tense period, it was announced that there was no clear winner of the presidential election and Zimbabweans would need to go back to the polls for run off elections to elect their leader.

During what seemed like an interminably long time for the election results to be released, the MDC started off well, bolstered by the unofficial tally of returns posted at polling station that put the election outcome strongly in their grasp, they called their supporters onto the streets to claim victory. But the MDC was ill prepared for the violence unleashed on its supporters by the state. There was no strategy for mobilisation of the masses to ensure that the opposition’s victory would not be taken away including challenging state forces of the police and army.

So, fear and intimidation won over the sense of injustice that their voices were not heard. Zimbabwe police banned political rallies with immediate effect less than two weeks after the elections amid growing tension over the disputed presidential elections. Shortly after this, a general strike called by the opposition to protest the failure of the Mugabe regime to release the results of the Presidential elections failed and more than 50 opposition supporters were reportedly arrested.

In the period running up to the run off presidential election, a campaign of brutal retribution was unleashed on those that supported the MDC and escalated in rural areas that had historically voted for Mugabe but had turn against him in the March elections. A BBC journalist reported “Anyone who has been actively involved in opposition politics can be assumed to be a target of the sinister gangs which come at night, dragging people from their beds for a savage beating or sometimes worse. Violence escalated to such an extent that MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangirai pulled out and urged his supporters not to go to the polls saying that the process was farce serving only to legitimize Mugabe’s reinstatement and far from being free and fair.

There has been widespread international criticism of Mugabe and his government for flouting the will of the people and refusing to step down. Zimbabweans may be disappointed that regional leaders did not put more pressure on Mugabe to recognise defeat or that the policy of quiet diplomacy has not been thrown out. South African President Thabo Mbeki has been criticised for not speaking out against Mugabe, in April he described the Zimbabwe elections as ‘normal’ rejecting that there was a ‘crisis’, so it is not unreasonable that critics find questionable his role as mediator of said ‘crisis’.

Mugabe defied the will of the international community, choosing not to postpone the run off elections after Tsvangirai pulled out. The result of the presidential run off on June 27 where Mugabe stood in a one man race was never in doubt; there was no delay by the Electoral Commission this time in announcing Mugabe’s win and he was sworn into office two days after the election. The very next day, the opportunity for African leaders to reject Mugabe’s stolen position was not taken despite some speaking out against Mugabe at the AU Summit in Egypt which Mugabe attended. Botswana Vice President, Mompati Merfahe said Zimbabwe should be excluded from African Union and regional talks. Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga also urged the AU to suspend Mr Mugabe until he allowed free and fair elections. This in fact could have been done by enforcing the AU rule not to accept a leader that has not been democratically elected. In the end, the summit settled on a resolution calling for a government of national unity in Zimbabwe and its delegates parroted these words empty of a solution to any journalist willing to give them airtime.

Zanu PF and the MDC are like oil and water so a government of national unity seems far fetched. Tsvangirai spoke against a power sharing deal in an interview with a French broadcaster. “It’s almost an elite pact between the leaderships. It doesn’t mean anything to the people… We want a transition that is going to work on a new constitution, demilitarise the institutions of Zanu PF, reform them, and then have elections.”

The inaction of the international community shows that the battle for Zimbabwe will not be fought outside Zimbabwe. It is this realisation that Zimbabweans must come to, they will have to stand up and fight, they will have to take to the streets to force change and take back their country. Morale of Zimbabweans is at its lowest point but their desire for change that they expressed at the March elections needs to find new expressions of defiance against such tyrannical rule. Such mobilisation may be difficult to engineer but opposition forces should be prepared to give support and structure should spontaneous mass action break out.
 
A people’s victory is needed. No one outside Zimbabwe should be able to claim credit for toppling Mugabe’s government; victory should go to the long suffering people of Zimbabwe.

In April 2008, a group of dockworkers in South Africa performed an act that entered them into international political folklore. Together with their union leadership of the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (SATAWU) and supported by their global union, the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), they managed to turn away a shipment of arms from China destined for the repressive government of Zimbabwe.

 The An Yue Jiang, a Chinese ship laden with 77 tonnes of arms and ammunition, was deflected from country to country around the Southern African coast for five weeks, seeking friendlier harbours across the SADC region. While the situation in Zimbabwe is fast deteriorating — as the country approaches its presidential election run-off date, the violent crackdown and intimidation of opposition party members and followers have intensified. The delay and deflection in delivery of the arms cargo to Zimbabwe could effectively have prevented a complete onslaught against opposition supporters.

Sandile Gasa, a Satawu shop-steward based at the docks in Durban, South Africa. spoke about the solidarity action ‘As South Africans, by standing up and refusing to off-load these arms, we are proud that we know we have not contributed to increasing the violent situation in Zimbabwe’.

SATAWU workers’ actions revived belief in the power and radicalism of international workers’ solidarity. By downing tools and refusing to ‘shut their eyes and pass the arms’, workers had adopted a tangible political position, beyond the realm of idealised union resolutions, press statements and memorandums. This was real solidarity in action towards their brothers and sisters in another country.

Union leadership has never before won so many plaudits from across the political and social spectrum in South Africa and internationally for such a simple action and many are starting to wonder why trade unions in South Africa and elsewhere are not utilising their power more to fight against oppression and exploitation, especially in the global context of neo-liberal capitalism that has eroded the living standards and working conditions of most of the world’s workers. Here was an action that went beyond the narrow confines of trade union collective bargaining and briefly having a major impact on the politics of Zimbabwe and the region.

‘In the planning department of the receiving department, we are normally the first to know about any ship. With the Chinese vessel, our suspicion mounted when the documents and contents did not match’, says Sandile. ‘We arranged an urgent meeting with other shop-stewards at the Durban Container Terminal about the suspicious ship, and considering the volatile situation in Zimbabwe, we passed our concerns to our head office’

Following the discovery of larger than normal containers on the vessel, in contrast to the regular sized containers described in the ship’s documents, the South African Police Services were called in to conduct an investigation of the ship’s cargo, and the huge containment of arms were discovered.

The South African government’s cited “legitimate business transaction between two countries” as their justification for inaction. Deputy Defence Minister, Mluleki George argued that if the documentation were in order, China and Zimbabwe were sovereign states conducting  business, and South Africa would not interfere.  To the South African government it didn’t matter that three million rounds of ammunition for AK47s, 3000 mortar shells and 1500 rocket propelled grenades were to be used against the people of Zimbabwe. But Sandile maintains that the documents were not in order.  On this alone, politics aside, the ship’s suspicious cargo and motive had to be investigated.

It is worthwhile saluting the valiant effort of South African civil society, from Church and various human rights groups to the labour movement, that stood in solidarity with the Zimbabwean people. A church group managed to secure a court order to prevent the ship being offloaded, but it was the strong SATAWU members’ resolve not to offload the cargo that captured the world’s imagination. It was the image of South Africa expressing solidarity with the people of Zimbabwe, devoid of the vague political rhetoric by the Mbeki-led government’s “quiet diplomacy” ever since Zanu-PF led by Robert Mugabe turned  against working class and poor Zimbabweans over a decade ago. This act of solidarity by dockworkers and civil society groups highlighted how effective the often untapped political power of labour, civil society and community groups can be if they work together and build unity in action.

SATAWU’s action was meant to create a domino effect against the deadly cargo and it worked, with the Mozambican government and then the local transport union in Maputo following up with similar solidarity support. SADC Chairperson, Zambian president Levy Mwanawasa, urged the region not to accede to the transferral of arms, but to no avail as the Angolan government appeared to break ranks.   

‘Solidarity is important’, says Bushy Shandu, another SATAWU shop steward, ‘and we urge people of Africa and abroad to do the same in saving people’s lives who are still oppressed by their countries.”
 
“It makes us proud to be part of an organization that thinks beyond our own issues, it makes us proud to be a part of SATAWU. We (had) managed to prevent a sort of arms deal’ Sandile added. What happens in Zimbabwe affects us, it doesn’t matter if we are in South Africa. We need to support each other. It makes me sad to hear that (the arms have reached Harare). I didn’t expect another African country to allow it to happen’.

The Satawu Durban dockworkers’ disappointment was informed by the misleading reports of the SABC TV news broadcasts that reported that Angola, an ally of Zimbabwe’s ruling Zanu-PF party, enabled the arms cargo to be transported by air to Harare. Upon the learning about this, Sandile spoke for all of the SATAWU dockworkers in Durban when he lamented, ‘if this is the case, it tears my heart’.

However, according ITF’s Sam Dawson, the ship docked in Luanda but unloaded no arms. Local trade unionists affiliated to the ITF actually watched the ship offload cement and construction materials and nothing else. The ITF, because of its international network and experience was able to track the ship’s movements from the beginning and is certain that the arms were still on board and returned to China. The ship also made no port calls apart from Luanda. It is apparent that reports in the South African media that the arms shipment made it to Harare were wrong and mainly based on the boast by Zimbabwe’s Department of Information head, Minister Bright Matonga that they had received the arms. This claim was later contradicted by Zimbabwe’s Defence Minister who later admitted that the claim was untrue.  

Sprite Zungu, ITF Co-ordinator based in Durban who assisted the workers’ solidarity efforts supported this view, “As far as I know, the ship was not carrying just weapons. Sources say that the ship had cargo for South Africa as well. And when it docked for an hour and half, it off-loaded building materials. The weapons were not off-loaded. This is just a rumour.You know what propaganda can achieve. By (the Zimbabwean information minister) announcing that the weapons had arrived, it was a way of frightening away those opposing the Zanu-PF. Satawu and the ITF were ultimately able to show the necessary international solidarity to the Zimbabwean people by stopping these weapons reaching there.”

Sadly in South Africa, barely a month after the heroic action of the Durban dockworkers, the country’ has been drowned in a raging tide of reactionary xenophobia against black foreigners, most from Zimbabwe and other African countries. Perhaps these latest events will serve as a terrible omen and wake up call to South African and international trade unions of the need to revive in practice locally in our midst and globally the socialist rallying call of “Workers of the World Unite!” so ably demonstrated by the Durban dockworkers, Satawu and their global union, the ITF.

This article appears in the South African Labour Bulletin and has been edited for reasons of space. It is written by Azad Essa, a researcher and journalist based at the IOL-Research, UKZN and Martin Jansen, director of Workers’ World Media Productions; interviews were conducted by Bonga Ngwane, an organiser for NUMSA in Kwazulu-Natal.

 

GHOSTLY GALLEON

A ghostly galleon plies the seas
that give and take, build and break
on Africa’s ex-colonies
on Mozambique, Namibia,
(sometimes mild and sometimes wild),
Angola and South Africa

Bang, bang, bang, the An Yue Jiang
is looking for a port,
but workers on the Durban docks
said, “Nothing of that sort!”

“Take your AKs somewhere else,
your mortars and grenades;
they’ll use those bullets on working folk,
boys with dreadlocks and girls with braids,
waiters, vendors, gardeners, maids,
labourers with picks and spades,
farmers dragging the oxen’s yoke”

There is a ghostly galleon
that plies the southern seas,
it carries death for working folk,
cannons and RPGs

It tried to dock in Durban
to drop its deadly load
but the Durban Dockers’ Union
upheld the workers’ code

Well it’s a bang, bang, bang, the An Yue Jiang
is sailing round the Cape
with toys for the boys that make a loud noise,
that kill and maim and rape

Salute the Durban dockers
Salute those workers bold
they save a thousand comrades
from misery untold.
they saved a thousand comrades
but only for a day
the ghostly galleon will be back
terror is here to stay.

John Eppel — SATAWU’s worker poet
April 2008
 

The barbaric violence, including the intimidation and killings that silenced the ho hum of the rainbow nation of South Africa in recent weeks has finally subsided.

Ordinary South Africans, after witnessing the bloodshed sprayed all over their newspapers and television screens, appear to have returned to the daily drama of their own lives. Of course, the mass rioting might have stopped, but isolated incidents continue to reverberate sporadically across the country.

But there is an uncomfortable quality to the manner in which the issue is being treated, even reported. It has not even been a month since the first reports of violence and already we treat the issue like sensitive Germans tired of discussing their naughty Nazi grandfathers.

All those with doomsday theories will be shot down as Afro-pessimists and racists, but surely the magnitude of the tragic events should be used as a warning of things to come if socio-economic conditions for the majority aren’t vigorously addressed rather than as some once-off anomaly?

Government’s response suggests otherwise. By refusing to treat the situation with a decisive, unambiguous commitment, the South African government has allowed mass ‘xenophobic sentiment’ to root itself in and germinate across the country in various forms.

Moreover, by standing back and allowing mainly humanitarian groups, NGOs and concerned citizens to direct the practical survival issues of the thousands displaced, government has belittled the crisis by relinquishing responsibility and effectively outsourcing disaster management to civil society. Even charitable middle class housewives have realized that the shocking new ‘Help victims of xenophobia’ table at the local Pick n Pay is really the same as the perennial ‘Feed the homeless’ or ‘Help Street Children’ table at the Spar next door.

Instead of demystifying the reasons for such hate, government has almost single-handedly guided the internalisation of xenophobia as another condemnable but untreatable South African reality. But this is too easy.

We can accept that we are an extremely violent nation. Our record in violent crime, gender and domestic violence and its like point to an unmistakable culture of violence. But when are we ever going to pull off the bandaids and address the deeply psychological, emotional damage wrapped in socio-economic strife that drives such a culture?

In the battle for resources, a hungry man is easy to manipulate. Eliminating Jews under the Nazi times, or institutionalizing racism, or building a wall between nations, is not hatred of ‘the other’ for its own sake.

Deep down we know that it is not essentially a superiority complex or tangible fear of the foreigner that drive xenophobes or racists. It is mostly an economic agenda driven by an ideology of exclusion, made tangible by stereotyping difference into a combustible hatred for ‘the other’.

Xenophobia in South Africa is no different. By government side-stepping the xenophobic attacks – rolling their eyes, pointing in different directions to deflect the blame – they have fundamentally refused to acknowledge that ordinary South Africans are growing increasingly restless about their dismal economic circumstance. By implication, government’s impotent stance concedes a lack of purpose to push forward real change.

We know that Manto’s (South Africa’s Health Minister) bi-polar kleptomania has cost us millions of lives to Aids when the disease could be manageable. We know crime is the only option for thousands of frustrated, angry youngsters needing food, shelter and airtime and is perceived as the only remaining option for many. We also know that government can clamp down, but ending crime would mean delivering services.  We also know that to most of our leaders, delivering services is a career option, a chance to secure an X5 to visit their ancestral home with blue lights, rather than the obligation of serving as the position suggests.

Xenophobia is a release valve for growing discontent in South Africa; another manifestation of government’s alienation from and apparent lack of concern for the poor. With all the damage xenophobia has apparently caused to our investment prospects and all that hoo haa, government seems relatively content with the perception that foreigners, and not poor social policy, non-existent border control, lack of service delivery, etc., are the causes for the growing frustration.

Meanwhile, little Congolese, Rwandan and Mozambican refugee camps mushroom across the urban landscape awaiting an indication that the South African government has reclaimed control of the situation. To no avail – not only is government battling to house these foreigners in the interim, they have yet to offer an official explanation of the crisis (except for the third force-Bourne Identity-like espionage theory), or even, more crucially, offer a way forward.

While our African next of kin shiver in leaking circus tents, our television sets show patronizing all-of-Africa-encompassing 2010 adverts, which do little to demystify the rest of Africa as underdeveloped, poverty stricken leeches waiting to lick away the gold plated streets of Johannesburg. Instead of creating imaginative ads and emergency Public service announcement’s on radio and television urging South Africans to shed their hostility towards their African neighbours, the SABC has this recurring Department of Home Affairs (DHA) advert urging South Africans to get an ID and be green rather than blue.

DHA’s insensitivity is startling but unsurprising, considering recent revelations at a xenophobia workshop in Durban, where it was revealed that African foreigners where regularly treated brutishly in DHA offices, including being referred to as ‘dogs’ by officials. If they are treated in this manner in public, in front of frustrated South Africans, how do we expect the disenfranchised to be warm and welcoming in such desperate times to this obviously created ‘other’?

Granted the various difficulties of governing a relatively ‘new’ country vastly polarized since the days of Van Riebeck, Smuts and Noot vir Noot, it is not merely poor performance that is the ire of ordinary South Africans, activists, academics and political commentators. It is rather the South African government’s feeble approach to finding caring solutions to this and other crises that force one to question government commitment.

But even government inaction can’t hold out for too long. You can bet your bottom Zim dollar that government will respond eventually.  A xenophobia related conference will be arranged, a set of international rock stars will fly over for a Madiba-inspired concert, mass t-shirts and other such memorabilia will be sold. And if we really lucky, we might even get another public holiday.

Written by Azad Essa, a journalist and researcher based at Industrial Organizational & Labour Studies Research University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. This article appears in IOLS Research Online Journal June 2008.http://iolsresearch.ukzn.ac.za  

 

Precarious work has come to be identified as a major problem undermining the gains of the working class and eroding trade union organisation. The IMF has started a global campaign to tackle the issue of precarious work and much of IMF action programme and implementation strategy aims at addressing this issue at various levels and through different methods. What we need to keep in mind though is that conditions are not the same the world over and as affiliates in Africa there is a need to think about and identify issues on precarious work that are most critical to this region and how these issues should be addressed in the broader IMF action programme and implementation strategy.

In this article we focus in on some of the key issues that make the experience of precarious work in Africa different from other parts of the world particularly the more industrialised and so called developed nations.

First we should clarify what it is we are talking about when it comes to the issue of precarious work as there are many different ideas of what precarious work is.

The IMF publication Metal World No.1 of 2007 says that; “Precarious work is typically non-permanent, temporary, casual, insecure and contingent. Workers in these jobs are often not covered by labour law and social security protections. Precarious work is caused by employment practices designed to maximize employer profits and flexibility and to shift risks onto workers. In highly-industrialised countries full-time jobs are being replaced by precarious jobs, while in developing countries precarious work has always been the norm.”

This definition is of particular importance for our thinking around precarious work. In developed economies, dealing with precarious work is often associated with combating certain employment practices affecting some workers. But in Africa precarious work is the ‘norm’ and has been for a long time, so the kind of action necessarily inevitably involves changing the whole labour market structure.

In sub-Saharan Africa employment by sector is quite different to most developed and middle income countries. Industry makes up only 9.6% of employment in Sub-Saharan Africa whilst agriculture makes up the bulk of employment. Trade and subsidy practices of countries in the North that prevent African agricultural produce entering these markets are very harmful to Africa because such a large proportion of people work in this sector. Because countries in Africa compete for scarce investment in industry, it is key that efforts occur across border to reduce the impact of this competition from the arena of labour standards and employment practices.
Even at a regional and sub regional level there are quite dramatic differences between countries and how precarious work is experienced. If you compare the labour market in South Africa to that in Malawi or Zambia there are both differences and similarities in the nature and form of precarious work. Thus whilst a regional approach is critical this needs to be supplemented with national approaches that identify particular issues and experiences of precarious work in a particular country.

The same Metal World article also notes that, “Precarious work is an increasing problem on every continent, undermining wages and conditions of work and threatening to divide working people. It flourishes wherever there is a labour surplus and workers are driven to accept work at any cost — conditions that exist in many, if not most, parts of the world today.”

But these conditions do not exist equally across the world. The statistics below produced by the International Labour Organisation shows large differences in the occurrence of vulnerable in different areas of the world. Vulnerable work as a concept is a more holistic idea about work forms.

Vulnerable Employment as a share of total Employment (%) 2007                         
       

Developed economies and EU	9.2%
Central SE Europe	19.3%
East Asia	55.7%
SE Asia and Pacific	59.4%
South Asia	77.2%
Latin America and the Caribbean	33.2%
Middle East	32.2%
North Africa	30.7%
Sub-Saharan Africa	72.9%

Source ILO 2008

If we begin to develop our understanding of precarious work in an African context we can broaden our understanding of this normative form of employment which goes beyond simply how the contractual relationship between employer and employee is defined.

We could therefore say that there are four dimensions when determining if employment is precarious in nature:
"1. the degree of certainty of continuing employment;
2. control over the labour process, which is linked to the presence or absence of trade unions and relates to control over working conditions, wages, and the pace of work;
3. the degree of regulatory protection; and
4. income level."

Precarious work in developed countries is often associated with part time and hour flexibility whereas in Africa it tends to relate to income level and regulation. Africa is commonly associated with the notion of the working poor. i.e. labour is rendered but wages are insufficient to move workers above the poverty line. This is a particularly serious problem in our context. Some 53% of people who are working in sub Saharan Africa are surviving on less than $1 a day. 85,4% of people working in Africa exist on less than $2 a day. The conclusion we draw is that in Africa precarious work is generally experienced as poverty work regardless of the types of contractual relationships sector and types of employment that may exist.

Precarious work is not isolated from other socio economic issues and struggles in the sub region. To tackle precarious work as though it exists in contractual isolation is to ask to fail. For the working class, poverty and fear are the cement of precarious work along with a host of other social ills including racism, gender discrimination and HIV prevalence.

A cornerstone to addressing these issues should be the eradication of precarious work by building decent work for meeting human needs. The Millennium Development Goals provide a good starting point. A strategic gap has developed which we can use to begin to drive home the necessity of human centred policies for development and attainment of the MDGs.

This gap has arisen from the cracks that have appeared in liberal economic policy prescriptions of the World Bank and the IMF that have been so beneficial to multinationals but have not achieved very much for development in Africa thus requiring a shift to a redistributive focus for the development and the achievement of the MDGs.

Rich countries living up to there Official Development Assistance promises and fairer trade regimes are key to this and trade union solidarity between north and south an essential component for developing pressure towards these ends.

Whilst creating employment and decent wages are key, free public services should be viewed as an essential form of wealth redistribution. Thus alliances are important especially those with an emphasis on public sector delivery. There are obvious alliance between manufacturing and metal unions and public service ones. We should be supporting public sector unions in their Quality Public Services Campaigns in Southern Africa and in return garnering support for campaigns around decent work and eradicating precarious work relations and poverty work.

The Global day of action precarious work is scheduled for the 7th October 2008. The IMF and it affiliates should participate in this action along with other global union federations and their affiliates and the International Trade Union Confederation.

Tanzanian Union of Industrial and Commercial Workers (TUICO) provides a sterling example of how unions in Africa can take on the task of organising precarious workers. Judith Kajula, representing TUICO at the recent gender strategy meeting in South Africa, spoke to UMOJA about TUICO’s work with precarious workers.  

commercial, financial and services and consultancy. As a union we are very concerned with the increasing number of precarious jobs in the formal and informal sector.

I work in the women and youth department, we organise women in all sectors and even in the informal sector. In the formal sector it is easier to organise because as trade unions, we have structured the way we go about our work based on formal employment. But times are changing and there are more and more workers in the informal sector and they are not so easy to organise because there is no structure, no employer to bargain with, yet they are still workers that are vulnerable and a large number of them are women. They are depending on themselves because in precarious work each person is fighting for her own well being. With the money she gets she must meet her needs for food, clothing and whatever else it is that she wants. The time for women to be dependent on men to bring home food for the table is over. Now men and women are dependent on each other, if one does not work it is difficult to make ends meet. Women also want to have greater economic independence, they want to be free from having to ask a man for things.

There are limited employment opportunities for women in the formal sector. Women are found in the EPZs, here employers have a profile of workers that they will employ. they want young women to work, may be because they are energetic so they can produce more, or may be because they wont know their rights.

Workers in the EPZs are difficult to organise. Employers don’t want to allow the trade union to organise workers. TUICO is trying to find ways to enter the EPZs, but the employers are resisting this. We still work hard to organise these workers, we have members from these factories but they don’t have branches in the workplace. Dues are paid outside the factory and management does not know which workers are union members. Workers are victimised for being union members, they are afraid that once management knows that they are union members they will be sacked.

We decided to do research because we needed to know more about workers in the EPZ, but we were refused entry to talk to workers. So together with the national centre, we spoke top women outside the gates so that we could know their situation at the EPZ. This information assists the union to seek ways to work in the EPZs, so that workers can know their rights and we can make demands for them and improve conditions.  Workers know that they can come to the union to learn more and if they are in trouble. We will help them, like if they are sacked, even if they are not union members because we understand that they are afraid to join the union for fear of victimisation.

Employers in the EPZs don’t want to follow the labour laws, when the law says a person should work 8 hours, these workers can work for longer than 12 hours. 

If a young woman in the EPZ becomes pregnant that is the end of her job. There is no maternity leave, if she wants her job back she must go to ask for it and if she is lucky then she might be employed again. if she tries to go back immediately so that her job is still there then that means no breastfeeding, to the detriment of the child, because once you are in the factory that’s the end of it.   

For those that don’t get their jobs back, they move to informal work, often this is selling things in the street like bananas in the street. For workers in the informal sector no one really bothers about them. But at TUICO we are recruiting these workers and trying to organise them in a way that meets their needs.

The workers in the market place  have been easier to work with. these informal workers were already in societies, but the societies only helps them to access credit for their goods and not much else. TUICO organised these workers, they pay TS600 which is equivalent to half a dollar. With this TUICO was able to improve their working conditions, for example they used to sit in the sun but now TUICO has organised shelters for them to work under.

We have also helped informal workers by giving them training on occupational health and safety and on how to manage their business. The ILO has books on how to manage a small business in the informal sector and TUICO took these books and used them to train people. No one gave TUICO money to do this, it was our own initiative, once these workers became members it was our duty to find appropriate ways to educate them.  So far we are working in two markets. Kareako Market which s the biggest in Dar Es Salaam and Karume Market where there are many women working with cloth doing things like tie and dye and batik. we organise both men and women, however there are far more women workers in the informal sector than in formal employment.

This work has been very successful as the informal workers have gained education and have greater solidarity. Now the city council is trying to manage the hawkers by locating them in markets. Hawkers are probably the most difficult to organise as they are not located in one place and are always moving. TUICO will continue to do work with and we have started to recruit and organise in new markets.  
 

 

Participants at the gender meeting held in June discussed how the gender programme could be taken forward and what activities could be put in place.  

on building engagement on gender in two countries, Mozambique and Kenya. The activities would concentrate on broad based action orientated organizing of women, building bottom up gender structures and allowing learning processes to be shared.

Affiliates in these countries will receive support with the cooperation of two other affiliates, SINTIME in Mozambique would receive support from the South African affiliates and KEWU in Kenya would receive support from TUICO in Tanzania. Participants also discussed what skills and information would be necessary to be developed for the Tanzanian and South African affiliates to provide the support.

The proposed proposed process for this initial stage of the programme is:
• Leadership engagement and project structuring in terms of tactics and methods
• Establishing cooperation of the two focus unions
• Buy in of leadership of the supporting unions
• Start to draw other affiliates into efforts of support between the focus and support unions
• Develop understanding for support unions of focus unions so that they can engage correctly and on laws, structures, organizational culture.
• Develop the core group of women activists in terms of skills and capacity
• Engage at leadership and sub regional level
•Collecting organizational experiences and distributing these e.g. Good practice on general unions and women structures
• Monitoring and evaluation to move to different phases

The IMF Regional Office undertook to send a report on how affiliates will participate on the project. IMF plans to kick start implementation of activities in these two countries at the beginning of next year and at the next meeting of the IMF gender group, these activities can be reported on and evaluated.

 

At the sub regional meeting that took place in Durban, South Africa in June 2008, the IMF Region and affiliates gave detailed reports on progress and development in each country.  

Discussion followed on what the way forward should be in IMF work in these countries. Willingness to work towards sustainable unionism is key to how IMF engages affiliates in the region. Thus it is also central to reporting on the progress of IMF affiliates in the region and discussions on future engagement between IMF and the affiliate.

Building Sustainable Unions

Building strong national unions is an important part of the work of IMF. For several affiliates, merging with other national unions to form a general union is the logical way forward to achieving a sustainable and viable union as the potential membership base in the sector is too small. Whilst there has been progress towards mergers in some countries this has been limited. The IMF cannot force these unions to merge but where countries want to move in this direction they will be supported. This agenda will not be pushed through by making financial resources available, for this support there first must be a genuine will on the part of the affiliate to merge.

There is more to sustainable unionism than mergers. The concept of sustainable unionism embodies a number of core principles and to learn more about this, read the article on page 2 titled ‘What is Sustainable Unionism?’
   
Progress towards sustainable unionism in the sub region

The following is a summary of discussion on sustainable unionism for each country and the manner in which IMF will engage with the affiliates.

Mauritius: There has been no progress with AGWU and E&MWU in Mauritius as they do not have a working relationship with each other. Whilst there has been assistance in the past, there can be no way forward until the two affiliates work out their differences and show genuine interest in overcoming their internal issues.

Mozambique: Mozambique has a very fast growing economy and some work is necessary to compile data on the membership of SINTIME and its potential size. The union must provide information to assist in strategic engagement on labour issues. There have been some cooperative discussions between unions in the past but the onus is on SINTIME to build information and direction.     
Angola: Efforts are underway to bring three unions into one sustainable national union but there is some internal strife that is stalling the process.

Namibia: The situation of the Namibian affiliate is changing under the new leadership and the regional office will meet with  MANWU to discuss this the way forward  but this will be done with the involvement of other GUFs especially BWI. The union must develop information that will be useful to establish the state of labour in the sector and as part of the manufacturing sector including details on representation. Other unions might also be approached for support in Namibia.

Zimbabwe: Given the political crisis in Zimbabwe, it is unclear what will happen with work in this country but should the situation improve, the IMF will attempt to work with the two unions towards rebuilding union structures.

South Africa: IMF will continue to strive towards unity and encourage the cooperation between NUMSA and MEWUSA which can be deepened through more forums and by general collaboration at industry and workplace levels.

Swaziland: There was little discussion on Swaziland, however we know that our affiliate SATU has had trouble with the national centre that has been threatened by the growth of the union and its ability to take on worker issues. SATU now reports that this relationship is improving, however it remains a concern for the region that in a small country of less than 100,000 formal sector workers, organised labour in Swaziland continues to be so divided especially given the political climate and the great socio economic challenges in the country. IMF project work continues with SATU who can also benefit from the support of NUMSA structures.

Zambia: Work in Zambia has been an inefficient use of resources as there is duplication of efforts of the IMF and BWI. If we are to continue to work in Zambia we need to consolidate efforts with BWI.

Tanzania: Our affiliate TUICO provides an excellent example of a sustainable general union. TUICO has grown from strength to strength and is self reliant and able to direct initiatives strategically. IMF will continue to support TUICO and to work with the union to assist others in the region. We have already started a relationship between TUICO and our Zambian affiliate NUBEGW.     
 
EXCO Report

Affiliates were directed to read the three documents made available at this meeting, which are  the IMF rules, the action programme and the paper on GUFs cooperation and merger discussions. At the next meeting affiliates must give input on these documents to be taken to EXCO. The IMF region will develop a document summarising issues and approaches in the region. Resolutions taken by the region will be added to this document. Affiliates should also familiarise themselves with the roles of the EXCO Committee and the Finance Committee, as the powers of these committees are often confused. There will be another meeting of affiliates to prepare for the next IMF Congress.  

Precarious Work Campaign

Affiliates discussed the Precarious Work Campaign and affiliates were not prepared to give a report on actions that they have planned for the Day of Action on 7 October 2008 as they had not discussed this in their structures. It was agreed that they are to decide on what actions they will hold and affiliates undertook to inform IMF office by 1 July of their plan for this day and also to include planned actions for beyond 7 October 2008. As precarious work affects the African region in a considerably different way than in the North, the regional office will develop posters and media releases so that affiliates can access resources beyond the global media pack.  

Regional Gender Project

Issues on the gender project were also resolved at the sub regional meeting. Outcomes of the gender meeting held on the two days prior to the sub regional meeting were presented and it was agreed that the project would focus delivery in two countries, Kenya and Mozambique with the support primarily from two countries, South Africa and Tanzania. The project will build the competence of the two support countries for general capacity transfer in the two delivery countries. The detailed project proposal will be submitted to SASK in November after IMF has had an opportunity to discuss the details of the project with the affiliates involved in the support and recipient countries.  

At the IMF Regional Gender Workshop held in South Africa, women representatives reported on how women are affected by precarious work in their countries, these situations are very similar to those reported by women from other parts of the world.

Cameroon: Women are in precarious employment and have less and less access to full-time jobs.  There are wage differences between precarious and non-precarious workers and women and young people are worst affected.  Companies don’t want to recruit workers directly.  The union has been able to get casual workers made permanent.

Namibia: Workers in EPZs work only for 3 years.  They are mostly men while women work as receptionists and cleaners.  Unions lobbied government against agency work and now a new labour act which outlaws labour hire and has massive fines takes effect on September 1.  Employers are still lobbying against it.  Currently the union is negotiating in a company of 160 workers for the 100 agency workers to be employed in accordance with the labour law.

Ghana: There are not many women in the metal sector. In the participant’s company, workers were employed for up to 10 years as casuals. When legislation came in forcing companies to make workers permanent after 3 months, the long-term casuals were given the choice of leaving the company and taking an ex gratia payment for lost benefits over the ten years or keeping a job but losing all seniority with the company.  Most women opted for the latter. Casuals do not have safety equipment while permanent workers do.  Women casuals are subject to sexual harassment — they are asked for favours to get work.

Swaziland: Precarious employment is normal practice with agency work and temps.  Pay is unequal and they are not in the union.  The union has mainstreamed precarious work in collective bargaining and forced employers to take responsibility for subcontracted employees.  Collective bargaining is their main method for dealing with precarious employment.

Kenya: Women work as messengers, tea girls, receptions, secretaries and telephone operators.  Union membership is declining because of precarious work.  We are calling for a law change to get rid of casual work.

Zambia: Agency hire is the main method of precarious employment, especially in supermarkets and the building industry.  Employers take advantage of women to pay low wages.  Probationary periods are abused — workers can go 10 years with no confirmation given and are not allowed to join unions.  The union ran an education campaign on casualisation in 5 companies in each region.  T-shirts were printed ‘an injury to one is an injury to all’. They got to see the Minister of Labour who wrote the union a letter giving them permission to enter mines and recruit casual workers.

South Africa: NUMSA- Labour hire is the most common method of precarious employment.  Agencies are registered under different bargaining councils and undermine conditions.  Most labour hire workers are in assembly.  Indirect production workers are outsourced eg. cleaning and catering.  The law is that after 12 months the primary employer must make agency workers permanent, but the agencies lay people off before they reach the 12 months.  Women are not doing skilled jobs or receiving training.  A common practice is to keep people working for years on temporary contracts with breaks in employment between each one.  Workers are often sacked before they qualify for benefits suchas family responsibility leave or unemployment benefits.
MEWUSA – Agency workers sometimes only come in for 2-3 hours then are sent home, only to wait weeks to be brought in again for a couple of days.  Favouritism dictates who gets the work.  Precarious workers are forced to sign a document saying that they won’t join the union or attend meetings.

Tanzania: All features of precarious work are present in the country. EPZs are mainly textiles — young girls are employed and sacked when they get pregnant.  There is no sick leave or maternity leave.  The union has produced materials specific to the industry to promote TUICO.  They hope soon to be given access to recruit inside the EPZ.  Women are working as sweepers, parking attendants and security guards.  Women went into precarious work when men were retrenched from full-time work and they had to make a living for their families.

Mozambique: Big companies use contract services for cleaning, transport etc.  These workers do not benefit from agreements made with the principal companies.  They have 1-3 month contracts and low salaries are typical. Most employers do not recognise unions.  The union is educating workers not to sign precarious agreements.

Angola and Zimbabwe:Women are mainly in the informal economy with no labour rights.

In the discussions that followed, a key issue that arose was women’s capacity to influence the agenda within their own unions.  Improving this was seen as a key strategy towards taking actions for women precarious workers.  Precarious work was identified as a factor in the fight against poverty, as well as unemployment.  Apart from NUMSA, the participants were unaware of actions their unions are planning for the Global Day of Action on Precarious Work on October 7 2008.  NUMSA will be campaigning with COSATU on poverty eradication, job creation and job protection — precarious work is an element in this.

Participants then identified the most important action that their unions should take in order to tackle precarious work for women.  These showed different priorities, based on national circumstances.  The identified priorities are:

South Africa: NUMSA identified outlaw labour brokers as a priority, whilst MEWUSA said that management should be approached to recognise precarious workers rights (MEWUSA)
Namibia: Union to earmark funds for women’s activities
Zambia: Amend labour laws
Cameroon: Implement existing labour laws
Tanzania: Collective bargaining coverage should be extended to avoid casualisation
Mozambique: Educate workers on rights
Angola: Use collective bargaining to reduce precarious work
Ghana: Organising strategy for women precarious workers that leads to collective bargaining
Kenya: Identify women for leadership positions.
Zimbabwe: No strategy is possible because of current political crisis

It was decided that these priorities should be considered in the discussions that were to follow on the development on a way forward of the IMF gender project for the region.

Article based on a report by Jenny Holdcroft, IMF Director fir Equal Rights and EPZs.