Convictions confound Swazi reform hopes

The US Department of State has said it is “deeply concerned by the convictions of human rights lawyer Thulani Maseko and magazine editor Bheki Makhubu”. Sentencing of the pair has yet to be scheduled but they could face long prison sentences or a hefty fine.  

The press statement, dated 22 July, from Marie Harf, Deputy Department Spokesperson 2014, also added:

“Their convictions for contempt of court for publishing an article critical of the High Court of Swaziland—and their ongoing prolonged detention—appear to undermine respect for Swaziland’s human rights obligations, particularly the right to freedom of expression, which is enshrined in Swaziland’s own constitution and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The United States strongly supports the universal fundamental freedom of expression and is deeply concerned by the actions of the Swazi Government.”

Apparel accounts for most of Swaziland’s exports to the US, which was valued at USD 50 million in 2013. Without duty free access under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), it is unlikely that these exports will remain competitive. US President Obama announced in June 2014 that Swaziland was no longer eligible for AGOA. This was a result of lack of progress over a number of years to make the required reforms to qualify for the preferential trading status, including respect for the rule of law and the right to organise. When the exclusion comes into effect on January 2015, concerns are that exports to the US will immediately plummet.

Maseko and Makhubu have served more than 100 days in prison since their arrest in March this year. Their conviction on 17 July 2014 has been condemned worldwide, not only as a violation of rights of Maseko and Makhubu, but also because it instils fear that will lead to self-censorship of the Swazi people on matters of the state for fear of arbitrary sanctions. It has also led to many questioning the credibility of the judiciary in Swaziland as an instrument of repression, serving the interests of King Mswati. Mswati rules Swaziland as an absolute monarchy that has been under a state of emergency since 1973. Sentencing has yet to be scheduled but they could face long prison sentences or a hefty fine.  

“We are distressed by this conviction, for what it means for human rights in Swaziland but also because we had hoped that the exclusion of Swaziland from AGOA may have prompted urgent reform,” says Fernando Lopes, Assistant General Secretary of IndustriALL. “This is not a good sign and we are deeply concerned for the precarious position of the garment sector in Swaziland now.”

Namibian tannery workers back at work

About 120 workers had been on a legal strike since 28 June 2014 after negotiations deadlocked on the demand from workers for transport to and from work. The strike was resolved after intervention by the Labour Ministry which led to a mediated process. Workers accepted that the company’s promise to look into the issue of transport by next year’s negotiation, the company said it required more time to plan for this. 

A 9% wage increase was agreed on across the board and the company agreed to back pay on the increase from March 2014 when the negotiations should have been concluded. Workers’ bonus pay, which the company threatened to withhold if workers went on strike, will to be negotiated as normal in October 2014.

“The union is happy if workers are happy, “says  Narina Pollmann, Deputy General Secretary of Manwu. “Workers were willing to meet the employer half way on their wage demand and were understanding of the company needing for more time to plan for transport. But the strike showed that in the next negotiations, workers’ demands on transport need to be taken seriously.”

Concerns on health and safety at the tannery had also been raised and Manwu is satisfied that labour inspectors have been sent out to investigate and will provide the union with a report. 

Liberian union commits to intensify organizing

The initiative is just one of a series of plans devised during a three-day workshop on collective bargaining organized by IndustriALL Global Union. The workshop, held in Liberia’s city of Gbarnga in Bong County, took place in early July 2014 and included participants from Uwul and five locals.

IndustriALL affiliate, Uwul, plans to revise its policy of splitting subscriptions equally between the local and the national union. By giving the national union a larger share, more resources will be available to recruit workers.

Changes also need to be made to the payment of subscriptions at new workplaces. The current practice is that a new local only starts to pay subscriptions to the union once a collective bargaining agreement has been signed with management. This process can sometimes take as long as two years.

At the workshop, Fabian Nkomo, IndustriALL’s Sub Saharan African regional secretary, said, "Uwul has the potential to build itself and it can raise resources from within to fund the organising initiative without needing outside support.”

Uwul believes it will adopt progressive resolutions and changes to their policies at their next convention planned for later in 2014.

Nigerian abducted schoolgirls must not be forgotten

Militant Islamic group, Boko Haram, seized 270 girls from their school in the north-eastern Nigerian state of Borno almost three months ago. While some girls have managed to escape, more than 200 remain captured.

The resolution, passed in June at IndustriALL’s Executive Committee meeting in Geneva, calls on the Nigerian government and girls’ captors to speedily ensure that all the girls are safely returned to their homes, unharmed.

Boko Haram has threatened to sell the girls as slaves or marry them off as child brides unless the government releases all imprisoned militants. 

The resolution, put forward by IndustriALL’s Women’s Committee, underlines that the girl-child suffers most in conflicts around the world and urges the Nigerian government to take measures to prevent further abductions from occurring.  

The Executive Committee pledged its solidarity with the girls, their parents and their communities.

IndustriALL has also written to Nigeria’s Ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva to convey the demands to the government.

Resolution on Nigeria and the schoolgirls captured by Boko Haram

Noting that women and children all over the world are the worst victims of economic, social, political, cultural and religion inspired violence;

Recognizing that the girl-child suffers the most in conflict situations around the world;

Fully committed to and supportive of the global call for the release of the more than 270 girls captured in north-east Nigeria on 14th April 2014, we the delegates to this IndustriALL Conference call upon the Nigerian government and the captors of the girls to speedily ensure that the girls are all safely returned to their homes, unharmed.

We pledge our solidarity with the girls, their parents and their communities.

We furthermore demand that measures be taken to prevent further abductions from happening.

25th June 2014

(Resolution sponsored by Women committee.)

Namibian tannery workers strike

Workers are ready to accept the wage increase negotiated between their employer and IndustriALL Global Union affiliate, Manwu, but have stood fast on their demand for transport, voting to go on an indefinite strike after coming to a deadlock on the matter.

The impact of rising transport costs are often overlooked and increasingly low waged workers opt to walk to work in order to not incur these costs. This increases their daily calorie intake requirements which are often not met, thus workers are going hungry.

“Some workers have to walk very long distances to work, up to five kilometres each way every day and what is worse is that they are often victims of crime, being an easy target for robbers,” said Justina Jonas, General Secretary of Manwu. “This time workers felt that they could not compromise on their need for transport.”

Jonas also raised concerns on health and safety at the tannery, saying that the health consequences of long term exposure to chemicals and the lack of protective gear needed to be addressed.

In a letter to Nakara’s Managing Director, Kevin Davidow, IndustriALL's general secretary, Jyrki Raina, said:

We urge you to take seriously the demands of workers for company provided transport to and from work in the interest of their security and well-being. We also call upon you to work with MANWU to address the concerns of your employees including making improvements to health and safety standards at your tannery.

The company has brought in scab labour despite workers being on a legal strike since 28 June 2014. Manwu has applied for a court interdict to prevent this. Nakara was the Africa regional winner in 2011 of the ‘Tannery of the Year’, an awards programme for the global tanning industry, for amongst other things, its commitment to its workers.

US withdraws Swaziland’s preferential trade status

US President Obama announced on June 26 2014 the termination of Swaziland as a beneficiary country of the AGOA, effective from 1 January 2015. The loss of AGOA eligibility will affect duty-free access of Swaziland’s garment exports to the US, worth USD50 million in 2013. 

“The US required that Swaziland address five recommendations, which were reasonable and in fact lenient, but the government failed to act” explains Wonder Mkhonza, General Secretary of Amalgamated Trade Union of Swaziland (Atuswa). Amongst these recommendations was respect for freedom of association and freedom of assembly.

Amongst key concerns is the 2012 deregistration of the Trade Union Congress of Swaziland (Tucoswa) and international pressure, including attempts by the ILO to ensure that the Swaziland government recognizes the federation, have thus far failed.  Atuswa, formed through the merger in September 2013 of a number of unions, including three IndustriALL Global Union affiliates, in sectors including manufacturing, metal and mining, also remains unregistered.

Trade union activities are often disrupted by the police. Trade union leaders are subjected to harassment and live with the threat of arrest and detention when going about their work. The recent conviction of a trade union leader and the imprisonment of a union lawyer for criticizing the lack of an independent judiciary the in Swaziland, are further indicators that the situation is worsening in Swaziland. An ILO fact finding mission in January 2014 found that no progress was made in the past decade.

In May 2014, prior to the deadline to meet the eligibility requirements, Atuswa led a march of about 400 garment workers to hand over a petition to the Swazi Prime Minister. “We petitioned the government to address the five recommendations so that Swaziland would keep its trading status with the US and save jobs, but up to today government has not responded to our petition.” said Mkhonza. 

The US will review Swaziland’s AGOA eligibility again in December 2014, thus the Swaziland government does have a window, albeit a small one, to assume its responsibility now to respect workers’ rights and regain preferential trade status.  

Massive Numsa strike begins in South Africa

“This was not an easy decision, but a painful one,” reads a Numsa statement from the National Executive Committee meeting  last week. “It has never been in our agenda to call a strike; this strike has been imposed on us. Ours is to use the strike as part of a tactic to exert organizational pressure on the bosses, to return to the table and present an offer acceptable to our members.”

Numsa declared a dispute at the end of May after two months of negotiations with the employer bodies, under the auspices of the Metal and Engineering Bargaining Council (MEIBC), failed to achieve an agreement. Workers initially demanded a 15 per cent wage increase but had reduced it to 12 per cent when the dispute was declared. The 220,000 Numsa members on strike represent around half of all workers in the sectors.

Numsa is also demanding that the bargaining agreement with MEIBC covers one year and not a three year period as has been the practice in the past. The union wants employers to agree to scrap the use of labour brokers, and remove the short time and layoff clauses from the main agreement. 

HIV/AIDS workplace training in Zambia

According to UNAIDS there are over a million people in Zambia living with HIV, with around 13% of adults aged between 15 to 49 infected with HIV/AIDS (2012).

Participants at the workshops learnt the importance of unions in ensuring HIV/AIDS policies are implemented and in making sure that workers receive continuous training and awareness.

On the first day, an all women workshop brought together 20, mostly young, workers from IndustriALL’s four Zambian affiliates: MUZ, NESAWU, NUCIW and NUBEGW.

Day two involved 20 young trade union members, the majority of whom were attending their first ever workshop on HIV/AIDS, said project coordinator, Paule France Ndessomin.

All participants confirmed the existence of HIV/AIDS policies at their workplaces. Some policies were comprehensive, covering the worker’s families, but others were not.

Discussion topics included HIV/AIDS and collective bargaining, trade union involvement in workplace programs, stigma and discrimination against HIV infected workers, and gender-based violence.

Stigma and discrimination are significant barriers to the effective implementation of HIV/AIDS programmes at the workplace. This is partly because workers have not completely grasped the HIV mode of transmission. Women participants were also shy to discuss violence perpetrated against them but agreed it did exist and that cultural beliefs are to be blamed.

Moses Silwamba, a scientist and researcher from ZERPH (Zambia Emory HIV Research Project), discussed basic HIV/AIDS transmission, as well as sexually transmitted infections (STI’s). He urged women to encourage their partners to go for couple counselling, as many married couples are infected with the disease but are reluctant to seek medical help. He advised workers to visit ZERPH and make use of the free services they offer.

Participants were also encouraged to use the International Labour Organization’s Recommendation 200 (ILO R200) on HIV/AIDS as a benchmark for workplace policy. It was emphasized that an effective policy must also be accompanied by the appropriate administrative, human resource and monitoring mechanisms.

The General Secretary of NUCIW, Seth Paraza, urged women and young workers to continue seeking information stressing that HIV/AIDS is still killing workers and community members. Women and young workers have a responsibility, therefore, to be involved in the effective implementation of HIV/AIDS programmes and policies at work. 

Patience running out on promised reforms in Swaziland

Such protest action by all the worker representatives is unheard of in case hearings at the International Labour Conference (ILC), which is the highest decision-making body of the International Labour Organization (ILO). As a signatory to ILO Convention 87 on Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organize, Swaziland was on the list of cases being examined by the ILO’s Committee on the Applications of Standards (CAS). For the past decade the Swazi government has flouted trade union and human rights and evaded interventions by the ILO on the application of Convention 87.

At the tripartite plenary discussion on 6 June 2014, the Swaziland  government refused to acknowledge the lack of progress on registration of two labour federations, the Trade Union  Congress of Swaziland (TUCOSWA) and the Amalgamated Trade Unions of Swaziland (ATUSWA). The government also denied violations of organizing rights and the harassment of trade union leaders.

Trade union struggles in Swaziland, where IndustriALL Global Union has three affiliates, are linked to those for political democracy. The small southern African country is governed by a monarch that instituted a state of emergency in 1973 and is still in place 41 years later.  The abuse of power extends to the police and judiciary, where arrests and trials are used to deal with dissent. Most recently, Thulani Maseko, a well-respected human rights and trade union lawyer, and Nation magazine editor, Bheki Makhubu, were jailed and are being tried for contempt of court for publishing articles raising issue with the judiciary.

With clear cases of repression in Swaziland and blatant violations of trade union and human rights, efforts by the Swazi government to downplay violations during the ILC Committee hearing and claim that sufficient progress had been made sounded absurd. Predictably, a number of African government representatives at the hearing gave their support to the Swazi government and stated, in what appeared to be well-rehearsed lines, that the government had sufficiently demonstrated its full commitment to making the necessary amendments and should be given more time to put legislative measures in place.

The government member of the United States however stated that the failure to address the violations of Convention 87 in Swaziland was a “matter of grave concern”, especially as the country enjoys preferential trade with the US under the US African Growth and Opportunity Act. This was also pressed by the worker member of the US, Ms. Fisher who said that that the May 2014 deadline to amend legislation in Swaziland for continued eligibility for trade benefits had not been respected. The worker member of the UK said that trade agreements with the EU also required that international commitments, including freedom of association, freedom of assembly and free speech, were met and that in recent months the number of arrests of those criticizing the regime had actually increased.

In a rare moment of support at the ILC,  several Employer delegates joined the Swaziland employer members to  call for urgent compliance with  C87 and the immediate registration of TUCOSWA.  Employer associations are also affected by government’s decision that there is insufficient legislation in place to register federations.

(Swaziland worker members made very clear the ongoing systematic attacks on workers’ rights and the suppression of trade union activities. These include the repressive tactics of the government against union leaders and those that support the unions, like Maseko, that risk arrest, criminal records and prison in their struggle for rights.)

Three countries, Algeria, Cambodia and Swaziland were on the list of the CAS for discussion on C87. Unfortunately the Committee could not come to Conclusions on 19 cases, including these three, because the Employers group once more refused to recognise that the right to strike forms part of Convention 87.

This impasse means that no firm stand has been taken on Swaziland at the ILC this year, however the draft conclusions indicate all parties are tiring of being strung along by promises for reform by the Swaziland government that remain unfulfilled.

Intensified strike in South Africa’s footwear sector

Last week 70 per cent of workers gave their support for a strike through a ballot. This allowed SACTWU to join another trade union in the sector, the National Union off Leather and Allied Workers, that had already commenced strike action. SACTWU’s members joining takes the the total number of workers on strike to about 8,000. 

Workers from the 40 companies that are covered by the bargaining council and some companies outside of the council are demanding a 10 per cent wage increase. Employers are offering 7.75 per cent. Wage increases are due on 1 July 2014.

Unions are due to sit down with employers on 12 June 2014. “Hopefully employers will review their stance tomorrow because there are no winners if it takes too long to resolve, says SACTWU’s National Footwear Sector Co-ordinator, Nazier Armoed. “Both parties are losing, employers and workers but it is also important for workers to win a decent wage increase”.