Live updates on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, using the hashtag #ALLWomen, where everyone could join in the discussion.
The live feed from the two days is saved on Facebook.
An in-depth article on the conference, together with the action plan and resolutions adopted, is found here.
Violence and harassment in the world of work can happen everywhere – online, in the physical workplace, during the commute, where workers rest, eat or attend to their health and sanitation need, as well as at social gatherings.
C190 provides a momentum for trade unions and other stakeholders to fight violence and harassment in the world of work. Unions have an important role to play to make sure the Convention becomes part of national laws.
C190 and unions – this is our tool and we should use it!
Contact IndustriALL's gender coordinator Armelle Seby to find out what your union can do.
Campaign materials:
| Leaflet "Let's campaign" | PDFs | PDFs |
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| Poster | Languages pdf |
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We ask the continent’s trade unions for their view.
Reeaz Chutto, Mauritius“We are far away from the ideals of Pan Africanism. The AfCFTA will not make our dreams come true. There are fears that many large African economies will disproportionately benefit while others will not be able to save their domestic industries from the dumping of imported goods.”
In Africa’s post-colonial landscape, dictatorships and rampant corruption thrive. Countries are underdeveloped and highly indebted. Economies have not transformed after independence. Most African economies remain primary producers of agricultural goods, oil and gas, and minerals with little or no value addition. They are heavily dependent on foreign aid. Unemployment is high, especially of the youth, and most people make a living in the informal sector. Poverty is common, including that of the working poor.
The AfCFTA is a project of the African Union (AU), designed to facilitate intra-African trade. Originally launched in 2012, its instruments have not yet fully come into force. When they do, many argue it has the potential to transform the economy of the continent.
The support for the AfCFTA by African countries since its launch and particularly since negotiations began in 2015 is overwhelming, with only Eritrea still to sign. Nigeria, the continent’s biggest economy, was initially reluctant, fearing that the country would be flooded by cheap imports, but eventually signed.
Rose Omamo, Kenya“The long-awaited solidarity between African countries is finally happening. It is time for African countries to have strategic trade agreements to bring together the resources and labour that the continent is rich in and attain strong and sustainable industrial development.”
African countries trade more with Asia, China, Europe and the USA than amongst themselves. African trade unions, which are promoting the industrialization of the continent, see this as a lost opportunity. African countries are competing for the same international markets, and duplicating efforts, instead of specializing, pooling expertise and trading with each other. However, unions are concerned that increasing trade will not automatically benefit people if workers’ rights are not prioritized.
Ayka Addis Factory, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
When it is fully implemented, many believe the AfCFTA could be a critical breakthrough to improving intra-regional trade, cross border trade and economic integration, creating jobs and contributing to the sustainable industrialization of the continent.
Although trade unions recognize this potential, they have been excluded from the consultations that led to the signing and ratification of the agreement. Trade unions, civil society organizations and communities that will be directly affected have not been given a chance to represent their interests. They argue that this exclusion is against the people-centred approach and transparency of the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights, and fair-trade principles that promote partnerships based on dialogue, transparency and mutual respect.
The AfCFTA a wide-ranging agreement that covers trade in goods and services, investment, intellectual property rights, and competition policy. The AfCFTA aims to “promote and attain sustainable and inclusive socio-economic development, gender equality and transformation of state parties.” Further, the agreement intends to “promote industrial development through diversification and regional value chain development, agricultural development and food security.”
According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, in 2017 intra-African trade accounted for only 16 per cent of total exports. The main trader is South Africa which imports petroleum products and exports maize and other items. It is followed by Nigeria and Egypt which export crude petroleum and petroleum gas and garments and textiles and import other products.
Globally, African trade only accounts for 2.6 per cent and mainly trades with Europe. Trade with India and China is also growing.
The AfCFTA aims to achieve transformation through implementing existing continental initiatives, including the Industrial Development Africa, Programme for Infrastructural Development of Africa, Action Plan for Boosting Intra-African Trade and the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme. Other projects include the Single Africa Air Transport Market and free movement of people.
Cullinan Diamond Mine, South Africa
With support from the AU and United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), the AfCFTA is driven by ministers and heads of states and government. The agreement has a secretariat which will be based Ghana.
The AfCFTA will create a single market for goods and services for a population of 1.2 billion people and a combined gross domestic product of US$3.4 trillion. The single market will create free movement of people, traders and investments leading to the establishment of a common customs union. According to UNECA, the AfCFTA will become the world’s largest free trade area since the formation of the World Trade Organization (WTO).
When fully functional, the AfCFTA aims to boost intra-African trade by over 50 per cent through the development and promotion of regional and continental value chains. The agreement, which is one of the strategies of the AU’s Agenda 2063 programme for transformation and development, will lead to the achievement of some of Sustainable Development Goals of Agenda 2030.
Benefits of the agreement include increased manufacturing and diversification in emerging economies including Ethiopia, Morocco and Rwanda that are implementing policies that promote manufacturing and industrialization. This means small countries will take advantage of the economies of scale and the huge market provided by the AfCFTA.
The agreement also has provisions that have allowed the struggling economies of Djibouti, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Malawi, Sudan, Zambia and Zimbabwe to benefit from reduced tariffs. According to the Global Manufacturing Competitive Index most of the manufacturing on the continent currently takes place in South Africa, Egypt and Nigeria.
The AfCFTA aims to improve coordination and facilitation of trade across the regional economic blocs. Integration will include bringing together regional economic communities – Arab Maghreb Union, Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, Economic Community of West African States, East African Community, the Community of Sahel-Saharan States, and the Economic Community of Central African States, Intergovernmental Authority on Development and Southern Africa Development Community. Among other things, the AfCFTA wants to end competition between the regional economic communities and replace it with cooperation.
The AfCFTA compliments other strategies of the AU including the African Mining Vision (AMV). The AMV identifies sustainable development corridors as a tool for promoting trade and investment, optimizing the use of infrastructure, encouraging value addition, and enhancing the competitiveness of African economies.
The corridors are geographical areas where resources are pooled together to achieve maximum impact.
“The African Spatial Development Programme provides a means to facilitate integrated economic development platforms based on the production of key large-scale anchor (usually in mineral beneficiation) investments and related upstream and downstream investments. They also provide a strategy to catalyse sustainable sectors (agriculture, tourism and resource-processing) and in doing so, provide a tool for introducing a spatial focus to planning for Africa’s infrastructure and economic development.”
The AMV also makes a case for artisanal and small-scale mining to be recognized by governments through policies and regulations. In most countries artisanal miners are criminalized with little or no effort to recognize and formalize their operations. How minerals mined by artisanal and small-scale miners can become part of the mining value chain is also important for the AfCFTA.
The operational instruments of the AfCFTA are rules of origin, the online negotiating forum, the monitoring and elimination of tariff and non-tariff barriers, a digital payment system and the African Trade Observatory – a platform for policymakers and the private sector to make data-driven and evidence-based trade related policies and decisions.
Is the AfCFTA charting a new path?
Africa has never been short of economic and policy documents. The African trade and investment policy landscape is littered with failed grand plans and ambitious policies that have not succeeded in bringing about much-needed trade.
The Organization of African Unity, which became the African Union in 2002, was formed in 1963 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, with great emphasis put on economic
co-operation. There were claims that Africa should not depend on aid from the Global North, but develop through trade and investment. Hence ideas of developmental states. Despite this, very little has changed on the ground.
The AfCFTA recognizes existing trade agreements, making it possible for them to complement the AfCFTA rather than compete with it. These include the African Growth and Opportunity Act, Economic Partnership Agreements, and agreements with the WTO. However, existing trade policies have failed to provide the impetus required for industrialization and economic development to take off in Africa.
Further, economic policies sponsored by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank have not led to sustainable growth, with structural adjustment programmes bringing the worst results. Trade liberalization saw the collapse of most local industries as their products could not compete with those imported from other countries. The privatization of public entities made public goods and services expensive for the continent’s poor.
It remains to be seen if the AfCFTA can transform the economies of the continent from the dependency on primary commodity exports. According to the UNCTAD, this dependency makes African economies vulnerable to the unstable prices on the international market. For instance, the low international oil prices have adversely affected the Nigerian economy while low uranium spot prices have led to the mothballing of Langer Heinrich mine in Namibia, leading to the loss of hundreds of jobs.
Rose Omamo, the general secretary of the Amalgamated Union of Kenya Metal Workers, which is affiliated to IndustriALL Global Union remarks:
“The long-awaited solidarity between African countries is finally happening. It is time for African countries to have strategic trade agreements to bring together the resources and labour that the continent is rich in and attain strong and sustainable industrial development.
"The AfCFTA is very promising. If the conditions are conducive, then I believe that the transfer of skills, classification of labour and compensation of African workers will be guaranteed. However, I am not sure if there are clear policies to address the labour issues.”
She continues:
“A policy must be developed to guide labour migration. The question of who invests in what country must be addressed to guide foreign direct investment. The movement of labour must include social protection across borders. In case of work injury, compensation should be clearly stipulated within a well-structured occupational safety and health policy.”
Reeaz Chutto, president of the Confederation des Travailleurs des Secteurs Publique et Prive, in Mauritius, also affiliated to IndustriALL, urges a cautious approach:
“The creation of the AfCFTA will inevitably boost trade within the African Continent but will bring opportunities and threats at the same time.
“We should not get into an overwhelming feeling that by increasing trade, this will bring more prosperity to a vast majority of Africans in all the countries that have signed the agreement. Only capital, goods and services will be free to move from one country to the other, not human beings.”
“We are far away from the ideals of Pan Africanism. The AfCFTA will not make our dreams come true. There are fears that many large African economies will disproportionately benefit while others will not be able to save their domestic industries from the dumping of imported goods.”
“The creation of the AfCFTA cannot exist in absolute terms to eliminate trade barriers. The main reason remains that countries will not play on a level field. Some larger economies have the infrastructure and resources to produce good quality goods at lower production cost as they have access to the latest digital technologies. Unfortunately, other countries do not have the proper inland infrastructure to ensure connectivity even inside the country.”
Jane Ragoo, the general secretary of CTSP says trade agreements should cater for social needs:
“Should we close our frontiers, or should we open them according to supply and demand as dictated by market forces? We need to conduct trade that put people first and not the greed of the capitalist system. Trade cannot be free without considering our social, cultural and traditional contexts.”
“We need to protect and value our traditional and artisanal products. Exports of food and agricultural products should be done only after satisfying the local demand and prices should be affordable for all.”
“It is important to focus on land connectivity among African countries to favour a more ecological and affordable transport system of human beings and goods. This will ensure that small and medium sized producers also benefit from the AfCFTA. Better connectivity among African countries will enhance regular migration. Further, it is important for the AfCFTA to promote fair trade which guarantees an equitable livelihood to small farmers through income distribution in the supply chain.”
Unions argue that most of the documents signed so far – the agreement establishing the AfCFTA, the Kigali Declaration and the protocol for the establishment of the African economic community relating to the free movement of persons, right to residence and right to establishment – should include workers’ rights and decent work as protected by International Labour Organization (ILO) conventions, especially Convention 87 on the freedom of association and the right to organize and Convention 98 on the right to organize and collective bargaining. Most African countries have ratified and domesticated these conventions into their national labour laws.
There remains a window of opportunity for a union voice to be heard in the operational phase of the AfCFTA, which was launched on 7 July at the Niger Summit of the African Union, and in negotiations for future protocols. In the operational phase, in which countries develop their implementation plans, important topics such as the future of work and Industry 4.0 can be included.
Oil Libya, Port Gentil, Gabon
At the Executive Committee in Mexico City in December 2018, IndustriALL adopted an action plan on international trade and manufacturing policies to help affiliates become more involved in talks concerning multilateral trade agreements and treaties.
Thousands of people had left for Western Europe in search of better lives. Cooperation is key to securing a qualified workforce and living wages in South-East European textile industries.
This was the conclusion when 100 national and local union leaders, employer associations and fashion brands met at a conference organized by IndustriALL Global Union and industriAll Europe on 12-13 November in Sofia.
Employer associations from Albania, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Romania and Serbia expressed support for increasing wages to secure enough qualified workforce, but said they need help from the brands.
Fashion brands H&M, Inditex, ASOS and Benetton pledged their cooperation for a sustainable transformation. The ACT living wage initiative provides a methodology for purchasing practices that enable the payment of living wages. Respect of freedom of association and industry-level collective agreements are other central elements.
Unions reported progress on rebuilding national level collective bargaining. Just days earlier, a sectoral framework agreement was signed in Bulgaria, providing a set of rights and a minimum salary, seven per cent above the legal minimum wage. Talks on sectoral collective agreements have been launched in Albania and Croatia, in North Macedonia, unions and employers are working to improve the coverage of the existing branch accord.
Key to progress is building trade union power. Unions in the region recruited 6,500 new members in 2018-2019, but there were also job losses due of fluctuations in production.
Despite a hostile environment, affiliates are committed to continue building stronger unions with the help of detailed mappings and strategic organising plans. They will be supported by their European and global organisations and affiliates from Sweden, Spain, Germany, Italy and Belgium.
Representatives of the European Commission and industry associations Cotance and CEC offered their cooperation on developing social dialogue and capacity building.
Luc Triangle, industriAll Europe’s general secretary said:
“Workers leaving South-East Europe, companies lacking work forces, and disadvantaged regions in South-East Europe alarmingly running out of inhabitants will continue if wages, working conditions and living standards are not raised to higher standards. Strong unions and sectoral employers’ associations taking responsibility for their industries by negotiating collective agreements are needed to give the fashion industry and their workers a future in South-East Europe.”
Kemal Özkan, IndustriALL assistant general secretary, said:
“What is needed in Southeast Europe is a sustainable economy and we believe textile and garment industries can play a key role for this with living wages and decent working conditions. But, obviously, without mobilization on the ground and capacity building this will not happen. We need to strengthen our structures and develop effective industrial relations in the supply chain. Global framework agreements give us an opportunity to do so. Therefore, we welcome the commitment of global brands at this Conference to work towards improving purchasing practices and supporting collective agreements at industry level.”
All participating unions got a certificate of achievement for their action. The conference was part of an EU-funded project “Strengthening the capacity of trade unions in South-East Europe to improve wages and working conditions in the garment and footwear sectors”, carried out in cooperation between industriAll Europe and IndustriALL Global Union. The project covers Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania and Serbia. In addition, affiliates from Bosnia-Herzegovina were invited to the conference.
The AfCFTA has a market size of 1.2 billion people, a GDP of US$3.4 trillion, and potential to boost inter-African trade by over 50 per cent. The agreement came into effect on 30 May when 22 countries submitted ratification documents, and the second phase began at the African Union (AU) meeting in Niamey, Niger with offices being opened later in Accra, Ghana. The AfCFTA’s instruments are rules of origin, online negotiation forum, monitoring and elimination of non-tariff barriers, digital payment system, and African Trade Observatory. Trading is scheduled to commence in July 2020.
The AfCFTA is one of the industrial policies of the AU which complements the African Mining Vision and the Third Industrial Development Decade for Africa.
Based on the Africa Industrialization Week theme, IndustriALL Global Union in line with its congress resolutions says: “All trade agreements must include binding and enforceable clauses on labour, union and social rights […] All signatories to trade agreements must ratify and fully implement the International Labour Organization’s fundamental conventions and other essential norms and standards.”
Valter Sanches, IndustriALL general secretary emphasizes:
“Alternative trade and industrial policies are key to industrialization. The AfCFTA as a trade policy should be innovative, inclusive and sustainable, and be guided by the developmental needs of the African countries to enable them to meet the UN sustainable development goals. The policies must also promote decent work and create jobs. The abuse of workers’ rights in global and African supply chains must be brought to a halt through the agreement.”
Further, the AfCFTA must protect enforceable industrial relations and international labour standards that most countries have already included in their national labour laws and legislative frameworks. The implementation of the agreement must also be democratic and transparent unlike earlier negotiations that excluded unions and civil society organizations.
Sanches adds:
“Going forward, we propose that unions be involved as they have the industrial expertise and the political support of the working class. Unions are better placed to deal with complex labour and trade issues.”
Some countries have expressed fears of goods being dumped in their economies. Therefore, in implementing the AfCFTA it should be considered that African countries are not the same level in size and complexity. This means, for instance, that smaller economies should retain policy spaces and the right to regulate to benefit the poor and protect vulnerable industries. Further, the free trade area should promote digital policy tools that focus on regulations governing ownership, access and data sharing.
Lidl is estimated to be the fourth biggest grocery chain in the world and the first German discounter to commit to ACT.
“Joining ACT is the next step in our commitment to tackling the topic of wage fairness, jointly with all participating stakeholders, even more effectively,” says Stefan Haensel, Director CSR, Buying International at Lidl.
ACT members are working together to improve wages in the global garment and footwear industry through improved purchasing practices linked to collective bargaining agreements aiming to implement the human right to living wages.
“Lidl deciding to commit to ACT demonstrates ACT’s credibility as the most promising means of delivering sustainable wage increases in the garment supply chain,” says Jenny Holdcroft, Assistant General Secretary IndustriALL.
With its 500 million work force expected to increase to 676 million workers by 2030, according to the International Labour Organization, Africa can take advantage of the demographic dividend if it fixes some of its fundamentals including increased government policy support for industrial development.
The Industrialization in Africa conference that was organized by IndustriALL Global Union’s sub Saharan region recommended how government policies can promote interlinkages between production and trade in goods and services, technological innovation, investing in manufacturing, redesigning products, and lower transport costs.
Further, infrastructure, skills and stronger institutions were identified as key. Participants at the conference said these changes were necessary for Africa to compete in the global value chains.
Valter Sanches, IndustriALL Global Union general secretary says:
“Sustainable industrialization has the potential to create employment, especially in the manufacturing sectors of African economies. With more decent jobs that pay living wages, we believe that poverty will be eradicated. Currently Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest poverty levels especially in low income and conflict-affected countries.
“It also has the highest number of the working poor. Unemployment remains high especially for the youth with most making of them making a living in the informal sector. Sustainable industrialization can reverse this and turn the workers fortune around.”
At below 10 per cent of GDP, Africa’s global manufacturing continues to lag other continents with manufacturing concentrated only in a few countries that include South Africa, Egypt, Nigeria and Morocco. Manufacturing value addition is also low.
However, there is potential in industries that are based on information and communications technology which are in common with Industry 4.0. Such industries give workers skills for the digital economy that include advanced data analysis necessary in future workplaces.
Africa’s heavy manufacturing consist of transport vehicles, appliances, electronics and industrial equipment. Foreign direct investment is also favouring manufacturing. At the African Investment Forum organized by the African Development Bank in Johannesburg, South Africa 13-15 November investors pledged over US$40 billion in various projects that will be implemented in 25 countries.
Textile and garment is another sector important for Africa’s industrialization. In Ethiopia and Kenya global brands are working alongside small and medium scale enterprises to create tens of thousands of jobs.
In April 2018, the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control imposed sanctions on Russia’s second biggest car manufacturer, GAZ Group.
The enforcement of the sanctions against the carmaker have been postponed a few times, currently until 31 March 2020, but many suppliers and partners have already stopped working with GAZ Group.
In December 2018, Daimler stopped manufacturing Mercedes-Benz Sprinter, and a range of projects with Volkswagen have been suspended over to the threat of sanctions.
GAZ Group is dependent on imported components, which they will not be able to buy from abroad if the sanctions come into effect. The termination of contracts with a number of American and European suppliers would lead to production shutdowns and mass layoffs. 40,000 GAZ Group workers and around 360,000 workers along the supply chain could lose their jobs.
“GAZ Group workers have been living in uncertainty for 1,5 years. The sanctions are a threat to the entire automobile industry in Russia, around 400,000 people working for GAZ Group, its suppliers, partners and dealers and in the industry, all depend on GAZ’ operations. If you include families, over one million people may lose their income and will not be able to pay for health care, education and will lose their social guarantees,”
says Andrey Fefelov, AFW chairman.
The AFW believes that US automotive companies wish to conquer the Russian market to suppress the leading Russia's automaker, to make it weak and unable to win competition, and this is an idea behind the US sanctions.
“IndustriALL Global Union has approved an action plan for fair trade and industrial policy in which trade defense mechanisms are acknowledged, as long as they don’t affect jobs in other countries. Our foreign suppliers are also suffering losses, as they cannot make any long-term plans because of the sanctions. People in both Russia and other countries are suffering; according to industry experts, Germany for example sustains billion losses because of the US sanction policy against Russia.
“We need to protect workers’ rights and ensure fair trade conditions and fair competition. We need to ensure that workers are not targeted by sanction policies,”
says Andrey Fefelov.
The AFW has appealed to the US administration through the US Ambassador in Russia, requesting that sanctions are lifted.
Within the last few months, IndustriALL Global Union’s affiliates in Ukraine, the Independent Trade Union of Miners of Ukraine and the Trade Union of Coal Industry Workers of Ukraine, mobilized their members many times to hold protest actions against wage arrears across Ukraine in the Donbas, Luhansk, Lviv and Volyn regions. Trade union leaders held meetings with representatives of the government and the parliament of Ukraine demanding immediate measures to resolve the problems at the state-owned coal mines. As a result, on 31 October, the parliament of Ukraine adopted the Law on Amendments to the State Budget of Ukraine for 2019 that allocated an additional UAH 1 billion (US $40 million) to compensate unpaid wages of coal miners.
Even after the enactment of the Law, allocated funds were not transferred to the miners for two weeks, which caused increasing protests among the mining communities.
On 12 November, 45 miners of Gorskaya Mine, a part of Pervomayskugol, decided not to leave the mine at the end of their shift and launched a protest action underground demanding the payment of wages from June to October. The day after, six miners of Toshkovskaya Mine and 13 miners of Karbonit Mine, both are a part of Pervomayskugol, refused to come up to the surface with the same demand. All miners came out of the mines only on 14 November after their wages were paid.
At the same time, miners of Lvivugol refused to go down into the mine and decided to picket around local authorities. They also announced their intention to go to Kiev to conduct demonstrations in front of the parliament, government and presidential buildings if their demands to eliminate wage arrears are not met.
On 13 November, desperate miners of Mirnogradugol and their family members protested in front of the mine administration blocking the close streets and demanding payment of months-long wage arrears.
Expressing his gratitude to all miners and trade unionists who participated in protests and showed solidarity in the struggle for the right to payment for work, Mykhailo Volynets, the chairman of the Independent Trade Union of Miners of Ukraine and Member of Parliament said:
“Especially I’m thankful to those miners who protested in dangerous underground conditions".
IndustriALL Global Union’s assistant general secretary Kemal Özkan said:
“Our global union family conveys our heartfelt congratulations to our coal mining affiliates in Ukraine and their brave members and families. We urge the Ukrainian authorities to keep efficient social dialogue with the unions in order to stabilize the situation at the state-owned coal mines, address miners' problems and avoid wage arrears in the future.”
We are less than a year away from IndustriALL’s third Congress, to be held in Cape Town in October 2020, where we will unite for a just future under the slogan Amandla Awethu.
This issue of Global Worker takes a closer look at two successful organizing initiatives; Bhutanese students in Japan who ended up working long hours, sometimes illegally, for low wages managed to form a union with the support of JAM.
And home-based workers, primarily women, fighting forward and forming a union to claim rights for their members and winning significant victories.
Mining giant BHP has a clear policy to outsource workers, who end up working side by side with those on permanent contracts, but with less pay and more precarious conditions. After a decision in our Executive Committee, IndustriALL launched a campaign against the company together with the global network of unions at BHP operations.
7 October, World Day for Decent Work, is a day of action for unions around the world, repeating the message to STOP Precarious Work. See photos of union action.
Now more than ever, we need to come together and fight back. With hundreds of millions of unionized workers around the world, we are a force to be reckoned with.
Now more than ever, we need to come together and fight back. With hundreds of millions of unionized workers around the world, we are a force to be reckoned with. Here are some of the issues central to unions’ struggles in the coming period.
Nearly one year ago, at our Executive Committee in Mexico City in December 2018, IndustriALL adopted an action plan on international trade and manufacturing policies to help affiliates become more involved in talks concerning multilateral trade agreements and treaties. We delve deeper into what the African Continental Free Trade Agreement will entail. Will it promote fair trade and create decent jobs?
We are seeing a profound transformation in the world of work, a transformation which brings both challenges and opportunities. As unions we need to protect workers along the way; read about the recently signed agreement with French car manufacturer Renault on building the world of work.
Beauty Zibula from South African textile union SACTWU has left IndustriALL’s Executive Committee and instead taken up a seat in South Africa’s parliament. She talks of her journey from the shop floor to the centre of politics in this interview.
This is an issue with inspiring stories; when we come together, we win.
A luta continua.
Valter Sanches
General Secretary
