By: Enid Plaatjies, Food and Allied Workers union, regional office bearer and shopsteward

INTRODUCTION

It is of utmost importance to define the term Globalisation. Firstly when you see the word "global" you automatically tend to think worldwide.

WHAT IS GLOBALISATION?

This monster of a word has infiltrated our country systematically without us realising its accompanying effects. In short one can say that Globalisation is the increasing power of international capital. National governments are encouraged to pursue export growth policies.

We are all confronted with and challenged by what globalisation represents throughout the world. I sometimes wonder whether it’s not just a part of propaganda to fool us into accepting the corporate agenda. In many ways it is very clear that this monster (globalisation) is about individual enrichment or a small group of individuals who control the economy of our country and the rest of the world.

HOW IS MY UNION BEING AFFECTED?

It is very sad to think that minority powers have played a major role in making our communities poorer than they were before. Referring to the fishing industry where I am a shopsteward, many of our towns along the coast have become ghost towns. Places like Lamberts Bay, Elands Bay and Doring Bay were once lively communities but foreign investors have come in and just closed down all the factories. People working in these factories have been replaced by sophisticated machinery, imported from Switzerland. In the fruit and vegetable sector, big companies like Langeberg have retrenched more than 11 000 people in a year. The poultry sector also experienced serious problems due to the imports of chicken from other countries flooding into South Africa.

We as FAWU have engaged in many protest actions e.g. Marches to the European Union building to demand fishing by people from foreign countries in our waters to be stopped. EU agreements with government killed and almost totally exhausted our natural fish resources. We had several meetings with the minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism but the, talks were all in vain.

Eventually the union established its own fishing company that is still in the process of applying for quotas. The main reason for doing this was to prevent massive retrenchment. The sole purpose of such companies would be to create jobs and not concentrate mainly on profit like the capitalist gurus. This issue is currently under debate in most unions.

How women are affected?

At least 80% of the total workers in the fishing industry in South Africa are women. The majority of them employed in seasonal, temporary and casual jobs. Research has shown that all the women along the West Coast are employed for less than 6 months a year. The rest of the year they have to struggle along, waiting for their annual bonus pay early in December each year. New technology is a threat to us because these machines do the job. Union membership is seriously declining.

On the fruit and vegetable farms, almost 70% of the workers are women. The company where I am working, Sea Harvest, has been employing casual / flexible workers for the past 3-4 years, they enjoy no benefits, they earn a lower rate than the permanent workers for doing the same job.

The union managed to eventually get rid of the " flexible demon" and more than 400 workers, 97% of who were women, became permanent. Now the bosses have introduced a new system of fixed contract workers for a period of 3 months.

MY RECOMMENDATION TO THE UNION IN RESPONSE TO GLOBALISATION.

1. The union should take over all these companies and run them as Section 21 (non- –profit) companies, in order to save people’s jobs and create more jobs for the poor. These companies should operate independently from the union and the proceeds used to set up trust funds for workers.
2. We should influence the market, on a social approach.
3. Government has to play its role in controlling state assets and should not privatise.

By: Violet Seboni, Branch Chairperson
South African Clothing and Textile Workers Union(SACTWU)

Globalisation is the dominance of International capital to determine the economic policies and paths of sovereign states. National governments are forced to adopt neo-liberal agendas. In our case the South African government adopted the macro-economic policy that has a negative impact on workers.

My union that falls within a feminised industry has been the hardest hit by free trade agreements. Since 1996 – June 1999 nearly 50 000 jobs were lost. The main reason for this being the reduction of tariffs at a faster rate than recommended by the World Trade Organisation. The clothing, textile and leather union is badly affected because membership has declined. Local manufacturers are forced to compete with the rest of the world because of free trade agreements that exist. While the economy is supposed to be open, it has given rise to rife corruption. We see a number of "illegal goods" coming through to South Africa. The customs officials are also corrupt. Second hand goods are also killing our industry.

In my factory we are producing hats and caps. Our main competitor is China, where child labour is rife; people work for long unfixed hours and earn very low wages. Therefore the Chinese people produce far more than us and there are so many Chinese made caps in our country that are being sold at a cheap rate while locally manufactured caps are very scarce and expensive. It was as a result of this problem that the company had to retrench many workers, mostly women.

There is a call from government to form to form Industrial Development Zones. My fear is that they will be just like Export Processing Zones that employ and exploit female workers.

In the clothing industry workers are already forced to work short time, from short time it will lead to retrenchments and eventually the closure of factories. This will lead to employers using retrenched workers as "back door" workers i.e. they will work from home instead of a factory and still be paid much less. Workers working from home can be used to produce for certain factories, which is illegal. This is an invisible form of exploitative labour that mainly women are subjected to. It is going to be very difficult to curb the negative effects of globalisation but these are the recommendations that I have to offer;

1. An intensification of the COSATU campaign against job losses.
2. Government has to reconsider its macroeconomic policy¹
3. The erosion of flexibility and casualisation of labour
4. The government to slow down its tariff reduction programme
5. An intensified campaign against child labour
6. Countries should not trade with those counterparts that are not adhering to labour laws e.g. ILO Conventions
7. To call for a social clause that will govern the world in terms of trade.

While we do understand that we are now an open market, we need to have some form of protection e.g. not to allow dumping that will lead to job losses.

By: Sibongile Nkosi, Regional chairperson
South African Agricultural, Plantation and Allied Workers’ Union-Saapawu

It is very difficult for unions to organise workers when there is no job security anymore. In the agricultural industry contracting, outsourcing, retrenchments and restructuring explains globalisation. Workers who are used as casual, contract and seasonal labour feel the harsh impact of globalisation daily.

All that these workers experience is repression from employers and the government on the one hand, who are proposing amendments to hard earned progressive labour laws and on the other hand trade unions who fail to address the issues of insecure workers.

How women are affected in the agricultural sector:

In the agricultural sector, employing mostly women, workers are the worst exploited. They work for very long hours and earn poor wages. They are used as flexible and cheap labour. Women are exposed to severe physical and sexual abuse, by bosses and other male workers. Women work out in the field all day with their babies on their backs. Women have no choice, but to work under these conditions or to starve. Most women in rural (farm) areas are left behind to provide for themselves and their children while the men go into the cities to find better jobs.

My recommendations:

• Try new and creative strategies to organise all the insecure workers
• A national seminar should be arranged in the agricultural sector to discuss
  the effects of globalisation on this sector;
  casualisation
  privatisation
  trade agreements
  health and safety of farm workers
  rural development programmes.

By: Nontembiso Masela, Branch secretary of the South African
Public Service & Allied Workers Union (Sapsawu)

Introduction:

Globalisation is an increasing power of international capital to determine the economic policies of sovereign states whereby national governments are encouraged to pursue export driven economic policies which generally involves ascribing to a neo-liberal agenda, including the following key features;

• The market rules
• Privatisation
• Deregulation
• Public sector cutbacks
• Competitiveness
• Export orientation
• Trade liberalisation and
• Casualisation of labour

The global economy puts communities and workers all over the world into competition. Globalisation is seen as an opportunity that is creating a new context within which workers should organise.

How it affects workers:

Globalisation affects workers negatively in the public sector. Workers are put into non-standard form of employment e.g. casual work, sub-contracting or temporary work. In the department of public works, where I am currently employed, we are faced with privatisation and outsourcing of jobs. Servicing and repairs of government vehicles is no longer done by the mechanical workshop as it used to before, private companies have taken over. Sub-contractors and private companies maintain roads, which means that the people and the machinery used before to perform these jobs have now been made redundant.

How globalisation affects women:

In most regions women’s share of the labour force is on the increase but it has two opposing reactions. From a positive viewpoint, women have been integrated in the formal economy, which has improved their financial status and that has resulted only in certain professions and management positions. However from a negative viewpoint it has not necessarily resulted in better access to higher paid jobs nor has it mitigated discrimination. Furthermore women are often the last to benefit from job expansion and the first to suffer the consequences of job contraction.

In many cases the first functions that are outsourced are areas predominantly occupied by women such as cleaning and catering.

The reduction of state expenditure on health care and education also affects women, firstly because they are predominantly employed in these sectors and secondly because they are burdened with the well-being and education responsibilities in the family.

Recommendations:

Casualisation presents a major challenge to the union movement. We need to foster solidarity between casual and full time workers.

The effects of globalisation are worldwide and not showing any signs of dissipating, therefore workers are best able to cope with its effects where they are well organised and mobilised.

We need to create an inclusive labour movement that is truly responsive to the needs of all workers.

In a global context workers must have international organisations. Without unity unions cannot successfully struggle against globalisation. As Maxine Gay of the New Zealand Trade Union Federation said, "workers of the world unite!"must be more than a slogan, it should be our guiding principle if we are going to build a workers counter power to that of international capital.

"Calling on the labour movement to campaign against retrenchments and to build international and regional solidarity. I lastly recommend that any action taken should have a gender sensitive approach" Yvonne Blaauw.