Calls for safety standards in artisanal mining as Zimbabwe’s flooded gold mines claim 28 lives

Mining companies Zimplats and Rio Zim are assisting in the rescue effort by providing machinery and equipment. Rescuers say they need water pumps with more horsepower to reach the missing miners as the water level keeps rising.

Glen Mpufane, IndustriALL Global Union director for mining, diamonds, gems, ornaments and precious stones says such tragedies are avoidable if key stakeholders prioritize health and safety in artisanal and small-scale miners (ASM) operations. In particular, governments must develop policy to formalize relations with ASM and mining companies with operations in their vicinity.

“Promoting the health and safety of ASM is a social responsibility and stakeholders mustn’t turn a blind eye. Therefore, we support initiatives in which mining companies engage with trade unions and communities on safe and sustainable mining such as the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance (IRMA), which calls for engagement between large scale mining (LSM), ASM and communities in its standard.”

Zed Banda, the general secretary of the National Mineworkers Union of Zimbabwe, an affiliate of IndustriALL, adds:

“Artisanal and small-scale mining is one of the ways in which workers are surviving Zimbabwe’s economic crisis. In a country with limited opportunities, and where unemployment is very high at over 90 per cent, ASM helps the youth put food on the table. We are calling on the government to recognize and support ASM to end the deadly mining conditions under which they toil to eke a living.”

Although ASM use basic tools like picks, shovels, ropes and buckets, they have been producing most of Zimbabwe’s gold. According to Fidelity Printers and Refiners, a subsidiary of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, and sole buyer of the precious metal, gold production increased mainly due to ASM. For instance, in 2018 ASM produced 21.7 tonnes compared to mining companies’ 11. 5 tonnes.

However, despite this high production, the laws are skewed against ASM who mine under appalling and dangerous conditions with weak adherence to health and safety standards expected in mining. To improve conditions ASM are asking for inclusion in current discussions on the Mines and Minerals Amendment Bill. They argue that policy regulation can improve health and safety and promote sustainable mining.

The Parliament of Zimbabwe says there are 500,000 ASM in the country who support up to three million dependents but operate with neither policy regulation nor government support.

The Alternative Mining Indaba, held annually parallel to the Mining Indaba, calls upon governments to:

“…decriminalize artisanal mining, so that miners can be trained; safety standards maintained, and communities liberated from the operations of criminal gangs. The African Mining Vision also recognizes artisanal and small-scale mining potential to end poverty and recommends that it be linked to development initiatives."

IndustriALL and Rio Tinto set QIT Madagascar Minerals on the path to constructive social dialogue

The mission was part of an IndustriALL union building activity in Antananarivo, Madagascar on 11 and 12 February 2019. IndustriALL and Rio Tinto are making a joint effort to set Rio Tinto’s QIT Madagascar Minerals (QMM) operation on the right path to sustainable constructive dialogue, consistent with Rio Tinto’s global industrial relations principles. QMM is 80 per cent owned by Rio Tinto and 20 per cent owned by the government of Madagascar.

The mining operation, situated near Fort Dauphin on the south-eastern tip of Madagascar, has been the scene of hostile and acrimonious industrial relations between local management and IndustriALL affiliates. A labour dispute over the implementation of provisions of a collective bargaining agreement erupted following IndustriALL’s high-level joint mission to the QMM operations in February 2018.

The labour dispute followed a long history of industrial strife at the operation, where contractors constitute the majority of the workforce. Since then, IndustriALL and Rio Tinto have undertaken several interventions, individual and jointly, to facilitate constructive industrial relations at QMM built on dialogue.

A two-day evaluation and planning union building workshop took place on 11 and 12 February, facilitated by IndustriALL’s union building team, comprising Sub-Saharan Africa regional secretary, Paule Ndessomin, the region’s programme officer, Tendai Makanza and the programme officer responsible for the region from IndustriALL’s central office in Geneva, Switzerland, Fanja Rasolomanana.

It was followed by a two-day joint intervention facilitated by Rio Tinto’s employee relations manager for the region, Philippe Ferrie, the employee relations manager for the Oyu Tolgoi mine in Mongolia, Munkh-Orgil Lkhaasuren, and Glen Mpufane, IndustriALL director for mining, diamonds, gems and ornaments.

Late last year, IndustriALL conducted a successful joint mission to the Oyu Tolgoi mine, as part of a delegation including Union to Union and Swedish affiliate IF Metall. A comprehensive report is available here. The operation’s employee relations manager came to Madagascar to share his experiences.

The joint intervention workshop was part of ongoing efforts to build constructive industrial relations at QMM between IndustriALL’s affiliates, Sendika Kristanina Malagasy (Sekrima) and Syndicalisme et Vie des Sociétés (SVS), and QMM management.

Glen Mpufane, commenting on the importance of the joint intervention workshop, said:

“The success or failure of the joint efforts to put QMM on the right pathway towards constructive industrial relations dialogue depends on the commitment to and implementation of the outcomes of the workshop by both QMM management and the trade unions”.

The outcomes also include a commitment by Rio Tinto to its contractors’ supplier code of conduct, and to sustainable communities.

Commenting on Rio Tinto’s commitment to a constructive dialogue roadmap for QMM Philippe Ferrie said,

“The workshop will help to improve QMM processes, to learn from what went well and where there is room for improvement in terms of process and relationship, and put all of this on a roadmap (within the overall Rio Tinto roadmap) that also keeps in mind the overall business framework of QMM.”

Zambia: Three mineworkers die in underground fire

While refuelling a loader, the engine caught fire, igniting materials around it and causing a larger fire. Noxious fumes from the fire entered the adjacent workshop making it impossible to breahte.

The deceased mineworkers were working at a level 1,380 metres below the surface. They were members of the Mineworkers Union of Zambia (MUZ) — an affiliate of IndustriALL Global Union.

Mopani Mine says in a statement that it will carry out an investigation in conjunction with the country’s mine safety department and announced that it had suspended operations until further notice. Zambia has passed an Occupational Health and Safety Act and ratified Convention 176 on health and safety in mines.

However, despite the laws there is poor inspection and compliance by companies. The companies also do not adhere to operational health and safety requirements. Further, enforcement by cash-strapped institutions to ensure compliance through inspections is often weak.

Says Glen Mpufane, IndustriALL director for mining: “Mopani should take responsibility over the death of the workers, and we hope that the investigations into the circumstances leading to the fire will provide more information as to the cause of the blaze. We reiterate once again that it is the responsibility of mining companies to always ensure the safety of the workers at their operations above all else.”

In paying condolences, the union’s president Joseph Chewe described the mineworkers in a social media post as “vibrant members who had potential to contribute immensely to the growth of the union” and said the accident was “tragic”. The youngest of the deceased workers was 27, while the other two were 32 and 33-years-old respectively, testimony to MUZ’s recent recruitment and organizing drive targeting young workers.

Chewe says “MUZ will continue to mourn with the bereaved families and work closely with the families and Mopani management to ensure that all the necessary arrangements are put in place during this trying moment.”

Mopani Mine, which produces copper and cobalt, is owned 73 per cent by Glencore. The other owners are the Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines (10 per cent) and First Quantum Minerals (16.9 per cent).

South African unions oppose plans to privatize power utility Eskom

The proposal is to break Eskom into three parts — generation, transmission and distribution. Other parts of Eskom considered to be non-core will be privatized.

IndustriALL Global Union affiliates, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) are against the proposed dismantling and privatization and says they will respond through mass action, protests and strikes should the government proceed with the plans.

Says David Sipunzi, the general secretary of NUM:

“NUM is against any attempt to unbundle Eskom. It is the privatization of Eskom to enrich the elites and not about saving costs. We, therefore, call upon the government to reconsider its position because it is anti-working class and the poor. It will result in electricity being expensive and unaffordable to the poor. The NUM is going to fight tooth and nail against the unbundling.”

Irvin Jim, general secretary of NUMSA concurs:

“The government took the decision to privatize a national asset, which is owned by the public, without bothering to consult the most important stakeholder, which is labour and the community at large. The working class is opposed to any privatization plans of our state-owned enterprises, particularly, Eskom.” Jim says the government must come up with a social plan that includes a Just Transition after consulting unions. He adds that consulting after making an announcement is a “box-ticking exercise.”

The union positions on Eskom were presented to the government during a march to the Union building in 2018, and they include an energy mix policy that considers coal mines and a socially-owned renewable energy sector that benefits workers and communities and not only a few independent power producers. Last year the government gave contracts to 27 independent power producers in the renewable energy sector to the disappointment of the unions.

Says Paule France Ndessomin, IndustriALL regional secretary for Sub Saharan Africa:

“There is need for social dialogue between government, unions and communities on the Eskom proposals. Unions are willing to engage as stakeholders representing thousands of workers who will be affected by the unbundling through job losses and retrenchments.”

African Mining Indaba: decent and sustainable work must be the future of mining in 2050

These are some of the questions that framed debate at the African Mining Indaba and Alternative African Mining Indaba, held in Cape Town 4-7 February.

The theme for the Mining Indaba, a forum bringing together thousands of representatives from governments, mining companies and investors, was “Championing Africa’s sustainable economic growth”.

Kemal Özkan, IndustriALL Global Union assistant general secretary, spoke on a Mining Indaba panel called Transforming the future of the workforce and communities: What is the role of technologies and local content policies:

“The technological transformation taking place in mining should protect the rights and interests of workers as well as those of mine-affected communities. New jobs must be created and there must be a fair and Just Transition, lifelong learning through reskilling and upskilling of mineworkers, and improved health and safety. The recommendations of the ILO Global Commission on the Future of Work report should be adopted.”

On the panel were representatives from the ILO, African Rainbow Minerals, and the Zimbabwe Environmental Lawyers Association.

The theme of the Alternative Indaba, composed of civil society actors and communities, was “going stronger, forging forward” as part of celebrating its ten years of activity. The second day of the Alternative Indaba focused on sustainable development with participants from the two indabas engaging in discussions. Alternative Indaba participants marched to the venue of the Mining Indaba to present their list of demands to mining companies for communities to benefit equally from mining and for sustainable mining that respects communities.

The Alternative Indaba, which this year had 500 delegates from 26 countries, is a movement for mine-affected communities to raise voices, reflect, learn and share, and mobilize on the rights of communities.

Some of its successes include improved policy engagement with governments, forcing mining companies to have dialogue with communities, including women and, in some instances, forcing the companies through community mobilization to comply with environmental laws. The Alternative Indaba, which received support from IndustriALL and other organizations, is also campaigning for the implementation of the African Mining Vision and engaging the African Union and governments, and represents artisanal and small-scale miners.

Glen Mpufane, IndustriALL director for mining, emphasized on another panel that “the social and environmental costs of mining are not reflected on companies’ balance sheets but externalised and passed on to workers, their families, poor communities and the state. Occupational injuries and ill-health have huge social and economic implications for society. Indirect costs include the costs of livelihoods lost, lost income to dependents, and the cost associated with caregiving by families and the community.”

Presidents Nana Akufo-Addo of Ghana, and Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa, said at the Mining Indaba that mining had potential to lead on sustainable economic development in Africa through infrastructure development and job creation.

Nigerian unions welcome minimum wage progress

Nigerian unions, including seven IndustriALL Global Union affiliates, will now lobby the Senate to pass the legislation when it resumes sitting.

If that is successful, all that will be left is for President Muhammadu Buhari to sign the minimum wage proposal into law. The new minimum wage is meant to cushion lowly paid workers in both the public and private sectors.

Attempts to have a two-tier minimum wage structure in which state and private sector workers would be paid N27,000 (US$74), sponsored by the National Council of States, were rejected by the Nigeria Labour Congress, the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria and the United Labour Congress.

Further, the federations demanded that there be no retrenchments because of the minimum wage. They rejected N27,000 because it is not the one recommended by the Tripartite Committee on National Minimum Wage in which the labour federations were represented. The committee held public hearings across the country and consulted widely before presenting their recommendations to the federal government.

The unions say the depreciation of the Naira has reduced the value of the minimum wage. For instance, in 2011 the N18,000 minimum wage was equal to US$150 but the approved minimum wage is less than US$100. This means going below N30,000 (US$83) is further pushing workers into poverty.

Afolabi Olawale Olufemi, acting general secretary of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, said:

“We welcome the approval of the national minimum wage by the National Assembly and commend them for adopting the recommendations of the minimum wage committee which came out of a protracted consultative process.”

IndustriALL’s seven affiliates in Nigeria organize in sectors including chemical, energy, oil and gas, steel and engineering, and textile, garment, leather and footwear.

Will blockchains verify virtue in the value chain?

– By Brian Kohler and Glen Mpufane

The lure of the quick technological fix

We live in a time when new technologies seem to promise new solutions to old problems. IndustriALL has studied the digitalization of industry and the rise of an assortment of advanced and disruptive production technologies: Industry 4.0.

An example of digitalization is blockchain technology. Blockchains are promising everything from the protection of privacy to its final destruction, from a new intrusion of artificially intelligent machines to the salvation of humanity.

As discussed in IndustriALL’s research paper, “The challenge of Industry 4.0 and the demand for new answers”, mining falls into the low immediate impact category of Industry 4.0. However, blockchain technology ranks high among pathways proposed to address and tackle labour abuses and other unsustainable practices in mineral supply chains.

What is a blockchain?

Fundamentally, blockchain is an information security strategy. It provides a deeper level of security than defending a database held on a computer server. Blockchain encrypts specific records or “blocks” of data, structured in what are called linked lists to form a “chain”. Each item on each list has identifying data and a link to the previous and the next item. Each new block of data must authenticate itself at particular points by some kind of proof, for example performing a mathematical operation, in order to be added to the chain. This proof must be difficult to falsify but easy to verify, to discourage spammers and hackers.

This creates a data chain where one can be reasonably certain that each item was added in chronological order and not manipulated. It works fairly well with Bitcoin, for example. It is this property that makes blockchain seem attractive for the task of verifying the cobalt supply chain.

The example of cobalt in the DRC

A traceable and verifiable digital record of cobalt from its origin in mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) through to its installation in the battery of a Tesla car would, proponents argue, enable anyone to know exactly when and in which mine – and potentially even by which miners – the particular cobalt in a particular battery was produced. This could provide assurance that environmental and social abuses, such as child labour, or abuse of trade union rights – were not used in the production of the cobalt, or if they were, enable tracing and tackling the abuses for remedy or punishment. Access to remedy is fundamental, and represents the litmus test for blockchain technology’s utility in bridging the divide between abuse and remedy.

Technological limitations

Even though we use terms like blockchain, in reality there is no abstract entity called a blockchain. It is just a network of physical computers, owned by a variety of people, using an agreed-upon authentication protocol. Where are these physical computers, and what are their characteristics? Are they vulnerable to failure or compromise?

The application of blockchain to the cobalt supply chain raises the problem of capacity. It can be assumed that most small-scale producers, particularly so-called artisanal miners, will not have the resources or capacity to participate as a link in the chain. Artisanal mining, even though it is legal in the DRC and forms a large part of the country’s mining landscape, presents a huge challenge for the supply chain of cobalt. The industry is forced to sell through bigger operators, creating new opportunities for corruption and the input of questionable data. Technology does not ensure trust in the human sense.

There are geopolitical boundaries within the internet, therefore public blockchains may be difficult to implement in some regions, as could possibly be the case with the DRC. Furthermore, there are developing countries to whom rich countries or multinational corporations will try to sell specific implementations of data infrastructure. This may lock a developing country into one standard that is incompatible with others. Intercommunication and standardization between potentially thousands of actors in different regions in a value chain may be a problem.

Immutability is one of the words frequently used to describe blockchain, and it is this characteristic that makes it suitable for cryptocurrencies. However, it remains vulnerable to fraudulent or misidentified data, particularly at the beginning of the chain. Given the lengths that some employers have gone to avoid or falsify social audits, and the resources that some corporate and government actors have to undermine any system that restricts their behaviour, it would be naive to assume that this will never be attempted. Recent reports involving a major player in the diamond industry point to this as a real possibility. Serious allegations by a major international diamond trader, the Rapaport Group, have emerged against De Beers, accusing it of obscuring the source of origin of the diamonds it markets across its extended sightholder network. It is important to note that these allegations have been made against the backdrop of De Beers’ ground-breaking announcement about blockchain technology being implemented to track the origins of its diamonds and as proof of its ethical sourcing practice.

It all comes down to ensuring the integrity of not just the technology, but also the data that is input to the technology. The current players in the DRC cobalt mining industry do not, at least for now, inspire confidence towards ensuring that integrity. With the emergence of the supply chain sustainability standards, could blockchain technology be the bridge between abuse and remedy? That possibility will remain only aspirational unless this technology can be fully adapted to the non-mathematical characteristics of sustainability’s social dimension – and the quality of input data is assured. Blockchain technology does not alter the principle of “garbage in; garbage out”.

Potential pitfalls and unintended consequences

The traceability and verifiability of blockchain raises concerns about personal privacy. Granted, privacy is not an objective of its application to a value chain such as cobalt. However, it could be problematic if someone identified in the chain were to invoke the EU’s “right to be forgotten” legislation, for example. Removing one piece of data could potentially damage the entire chain. Businesses, too, have privacy concerns. How will these be addressed?

Is the proposal for a public blockchain, or a private one? If the former, who will set the rules and standards that govern it, and can they be enforced on a network of independently controlled nodes? If the latter, who would own it? There are at present different proprietary systems. Who will own the data?

Suppose that a particular lot of cobalt is identified as having child labour in its production or violations of the rights of workers, what then? Will blockchain help law enforcement? Will the cobalt itself be forever tainted, or it will be used nonetheless? A complication is that the metal can be melted and added to any other, becoming physically and chemically untraceable at that point – emphasizing the importance of chain-of-custody in sustainability reporting.

The proposal to use blockchain technology to trace a problematic raw material like cobalt emphasizes the difficulty that blockchain experts are data specialists, computer scientists, and cryptographers. Cryptocurrencies can be viewed as products of pure mathematics. However, the environmental and especially social dimensions of sustainability are not so neat and tidy. Social scientists, human rights lawyers, and ecologists are not typically experts in the technology. This gap would need to be bridged.

Credibility of the blockchain solution

Past attempts to solve complex social problems with a technological quick fix have often failed. Information technologies that were supposed to democratize the gathering and distribution of news have instead isolated, alienated and fragmented society. Blockchain is a technology. The problems in the cobalt supply chain are social, cultural, environmental, political and economic, and we must always be wary of unintended and unforeseen consequences, for example an explosion in energy consumption to support the blockchain, confounding of certification with truth, or corruption. If evidence of human rights abuses arise after the initiation of a blockchain, will its immutability become a liability rather than an asset?

Much of present knowledge of blockchains arises from cryptocurrencies. In contrast, performance in the social dimension of sustainability is notoriously difficult to evaluate. Typically, the data will be qualitative rather than quantitative, and to a degree subjective rather than objective. This does not make these social indicators less important than economic or environmental ones that are easier to measure and track. However, the attempt to apply blockchain to this problem is to try to apply a solution worked out for an easily quantifiable item – a unit of currency – to a social problem. There are at least two concerns here. One is the assumption that something that has social value can be assigned a monetary value that everyone would agree on. This is rarely, if ever, the case. Furthermore, even if we pretend that we are only assigning a numeric rating with no implied financial value, it becomes a hard number that falsely suggests a degree of scientific certainty.

The real state of virtue of a particular commodity, e.g. cadmium, can only be established by audit. There is an entire industry of people and organizations who specialize in social and environmental auditing, some connected to the traditional financial auditing houses, many independent of them. Blockchain will not change that. It is the output of such audits that will become part of the digital signature of a particular lot of cadmium, an electronic tag on that lot. Unfortunately, it will prove easier to verify the authenticity of the tag, than the real-world conditions under which the commodity was produced.

Alternative solutions

In the case of cobalt, managing the value-chain data could also be accomplished with a database, or a distributed ledger, without blockchain. One question to ask is, what value does a blockchain add that these other approaches lack? Are blockchains the best solution to the problem of verifying behaviour in the cobalt value chain?

Although there is promise in the use of protocols such as blockchain to verify or certify the value chain for cobalt, we should be cautious. It may not add very much benefit versus other, less complicated technologies. Finally, we should not confuse traceability or certifiability with virtue – a dimension of sustainability that will remain complex and difficult to quantify.

Zimbabwe union leader arrested after general strike call

The arrest comes after more than a week of turmoil in Zimbabwe that left 12 people dead and hundreds injured. Police and soldiers, responding to mass demonstrations on 14 January, used live ammunition on protesters.

On 15 January, police raided the home of ZCTU president Peter Mutasa, destroying property. He was not home at the time, and his whereabouts are unknown. His brother, who was home, was severely beaten. Mutasa’s “crime” was recording and circulating a video calling on workers to take part in the general strike from 14-16 January to peacefully protest government policy.

Japhet Moyo – who was not in Zimbabwe at the time of the strike call – was arrested at the airport upon his return to the country and charged with subversion for the part he allegedly played.

The president of the Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe, Obert Masaraure, was abducted, tortured and imprisoned. According to a tweet, in his last call to a friend he says: “I’m not ok; they (security forces) are breaking in.”

Zimbabwe is experiencing a spiraling financial crisis. A currency collapse in 2009 lead the country to use the US dollar instead of its own currency, but it lacks the foreign exchange reserves to meet its obligations. Prices have risen dramatically, and purchasing power has collapsed. Early in January, the country’s 305,000 civil servants gave notice of strike action after they were paid in the local currency called the bond note instead of dollars.

On 12 January, the government raised fuel prices by over 200 per cent, making Zimbabwean petrol the most expensive in the world. The next day, the ZCTU called a three-day general strike, which was supported by a number of civil society organizations. Widespread anger led thousands to take part in mass demonstrations – not called for by the ZCTU – which included looting and property destruction. This led to a brutal crackdown by the security forces. The government also shut down the internet, making communication difficult.

IndustriALL Global Union general secretary Valter Sanches wrote to Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa, calling on him release Japhet Moyo and guarantee the safety of Peter Mutasa:

“We are calling for an end to the persecution and harassment of union leaders, and for the government to engage in social dialogue that involves trade unions and other stakeholders to resolve the economic crisis in Zimbabwe and to arrest the hyperinflation environment that is impoverishing workers. We believe that sound economic policies, whose formulation is inclusive, are some of the ways to deal with the crisis.”

Global Diamond Network demands better conditions in the supply chain

The supply chain from “mine to finger” includes exploration and evaluation, mining and processing, grading and valuation, rough diamond sales, cutting, polishing and trading, and jewellery manufacturing and sales.

Seven Sub Saharan African countries are amongst the top 10 diamond producers that account for 99 per cent of global production. Botswana leads with the highest value and is the second producer in volume after Russia. Angola’s Catoca is the biggest diamond mine whilst Lesotho, despite being a small producer, is known for producing large diamonds. United Kingdom based company, Firestone Diamonds, unearthed a 46-carat stone in December 2018, and a 134-carat yellow gem in October 2017 at Liqhobong mine. Over 700,000 artisanal miners dig for diamonds from alluvial deposits in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Case studies presented by meeting participants painted a dark side. For instance, organizing diamond workers in Lesotho is difficult due its mountainous terrain, which is difficult to reach by road but accessible on horseback. Precarious work is rampant and working for 12 hours common, while the application of different laws causes confusion. As a response, the network will support an intensive organizing and recruitment drive in Lesotho.

In Botswana and Namibia, the laws favour employers, and unions are fighting unfair dismissals and retrenchments. In India there is child labour while workers in Zimbabwe earn paltry wages sometimes paid in a few grocery items like cooking oil, maize meal, sugar and salt. Further, there is no access for unions to diamond mines especially in Marange which is guarded by armed soldiers. To end this, the network resolved to put pressure on governments and offending companies to respect workers’ rights and improve working conditions. Further, protests will be made at the International Labour Organization.

The network, which was launched in Windhoek, Namibia in 2017, resolved to engage on the Kimberley Process (KP), a multistakeholder initiative to remove conflict diamonds from the supply chain. The National Union of Mineworkers will organize a workshop on KP in 2019. Collective bargaining agreements will be shared while attention given to women and health and safety.

The network extended solidarity support to Beverly Murangi who was unfairly dismissed because of her appointment as co-chair of the network. She got financial support for eight months from ACV Transcom-Belgium which was coordinated by Yves Toutenel the network’s other chairperson.

The delegates visited Petra Diamonds’ Cullinan Mine where they went over 800m underground to see the mining operations. The mine which is 100km from Johannesburg employs over 1,000 workers.

Glen Mpufane, IndustriALL director of mining, diamond, gems, ornaments, jewellery and precious stones, said:

“We are demanding that the riches from the diamond supply chain be beneficial to workers. Countries should also benefit through economic development and creation of downstream industries through beneficiation. We urge companies to apply due diligence through international declarations that promote United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and other voluntary mechanisms.”

“We want an industrialized Africa” say IndustriALL affiliates

“Africa should boost its manufacturing, which is low according to the United Nations Industrial Development Organization,” said Issa Aremu, Vice-President of IndustriALL representing Sub-Saharan Africa. “The focus should be on manufacturing and value addition that creates decent jobs.”

“We cannot talk of industrialization and Industry 4.0 without infrastructural development. Energy policies are important and access to electricity critical,” Arremu added.

Even though there has been economic growth over the last two decades, the African continent has not seen a rise industrialization. Growth has been the result of expansion of domestic markets and some macroeconomic developments, favorable commodity prices, urbanization and increasing public and private investment.

The conference stressed that the development model of low-tech extraction and export of raw materials including minerals, oil and gas, and agricultural products isn’t working. African industry generates merely US$700 of GDP per capita, compared to US$2,500 in Latin America and US$3,400 in East Asia.

The conference recommended an alternative development model will be one anchored-on manufacturing, responsible mining, sustainable industrial policies, fair trade, Just Transition and living wages, and should be in sync with the UN Sustainable Development Goals especially on green and decent jobs.

However, the success of an alternative model is hinged on the political will of governments and strong national institutions, reforming international finance institutions approaches to development, responsive multinational companies, sustainable environmental policies, and the essential involvement of civil society organizations and communities.

“Africans live in poorness surrounded by richness,” said IndustriALL’s Assistant General Secretary, Kemal Özkan. “This cannot be the destiny of our African sisters and brothers. Industrialization is the best route for change and a means to promote economic and social policies that benefit African people.”

Participants agreed that unions must have a say in shaping economic and social policies as important actors representing workers. Fair representation of young workers, education and lifelong learning, and innovation in collective bargaining are needed for changing workplaces.

The conference recommended that unions adopt some of the recommendations of The Africa Mining Visionwhich articulates what should be done for mineral resources to support sustainable industrialization.

The participants decided to take action vis-à-vis African Union as part of the ongoing campaign for sustainable industrial development, and design and develop national plans and actions through IndustriALL’s national affiliates’ councils.

“Our campaign of Africa Industrialization is critically important for our affiliates in Sub-Saharan African countries. IndustriALL Global Union will continue to support its affiliates” said Kemal Özkan, Assistant General Secretary.

The conference, hosted by IndustriALL Global Union and its affiliates in Sub Saharan Africa, was supported by the International Labor Organization (ILO), Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES), national trade union centers and civil society organizations.