2005-11-04,+Vavi,+Mantashe+on+Trade+and+Tarriffs

Business Day, Johannesburg, 03 November 2005 = Trade gap with China wiping out jobs — Vavi = Vukani Mde, Political Correspondent

SA IS running a R16bn trade deficit with China that already has cost the country thousands of jobs, Zwelinzima Vavi, head of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), said yesterday.

China was also exporting labour-intensive manufactured goods to SA, while SA exported capital-intensive commodities. This had led to SA creating jobs in China while Chinese imports had destroyed jobs in this country, Vavi said.

Despite this trade imbalance, SA was negotiating a preferential trade agreement with China that could see further job losses, he said.

Speaking to reporters in Johannesburg, Vavi said government had moved too slowly in implementing safeguards against cheap Chinese imports in the clothing, textile and footwear sector, leading to a loss of 55000 jobs since 2003.

Due to its cheap and relatively skilled workforce, as well as an aggressive state-driven trade policy, China ran large trade surpluses with many countries. Its export of textiles had destroyed jobs across the African subcontinent.

Recently unions in the sector called on regional governments to enforce World Trade Organisation safeguards against China, but government is wary of this step for fear of Chinese retaliation against South African imports. Government has said it preferred to negotiate a free-trade deal with China that will protect SA’s vulnerable industries.

“While we appreciate the trade and industry department’s desire to negotiate a mutually acceptable agreement with China, it seems the Chinese side is simply dragging out the talks to avoid stronger measures,” said Vavi.

Cosatu said the trade relationship between Africa and China was “colonial” and focused on the exploitation of the continent’s minerals and natural resources without developing its industrial capacity.

Vavi said SA’s major exports to China were mining products, especially iron and steel, heavy chemicals and nonferrous metals.

In contrast SA imported Chinese clothing, machinery, televisions, communication equipment, furniture and footwear.

“Trade with China resulted in significant job losses. It also reinforces SA’s dependence on mining and heavy chemicals, while undermining its light industry.”

SA caught napping: Page 4

From: http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/economy.aspx?ID=BD4A108518

Business Day, Johannesburg, 03 November 2005 = Lower tariffs caught SA napping — NUM chief = Siseko Njobeni, Trade and Industry Correspondent

SA’s rapid trade liberalisation had put the country’s manufacturing sector under strain, National Union of Mineworkers general secretary Gwede Mantashe said yesterday.

Since 1994, government has decreased import tariffs as part of its objective to open its market to increase international trade. SA has reduced the import average tariff rate, from 20% in 1994 to 7% in 2002.

Mantashe said yesterday the lowering of the tariffs was rapid, and had led to an influx of cheap alternative goods, putting the manufacturing sector under strain. “We opened ourselves to competition without preparing our sectors,” he said.

An exception to this was the motor industry, which he said had become globally competitive as a result of the Motor Industry Development Programme, a government initiative that has led to an increase in vehicle production and exports.

Mantashe said that, unlike the support given to the car industry, the clothing and textile industry “was thrown to the wolves. It was open to competition without any intervention. Asian countries invaded us with cheap clothes.”

He said state intervention was critical for industrial development. “We must identify sectors we want to develop,” he said. The mining industry, for instance, exported most of its commodities as raw materials.

“We remain the biggest gold mining industry and a dominant platinum producer in the world, but our jewellery industry remains insignificant.”

Mantashe was speaking at a three-day “mayoral business week” of the Ekurhuleni municipality. The conference sought to attract investment to Ekurhuleni, dubbed SA’s “manufacturing hub”.

Speaking at the same conference, Industrial Development Corporation chief economist Lumkile Mondi called for a special programme to enable small businesses to take advantage of opportunities from Eskom and Transnet’s R134bn planned investment in infrastructure in the next five years.

Mondi said a small business development programme would ensure that key suppliers to state-owned enterprises had partnerships with small business suppliers.

“The most successful small business development programmes are a result of partnerships between large buyers and small enterprises,” he said.

From: http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/national.aspx?ID=BD4A108539

= **The COSATU workers’ survey** =

COSATU will be twenty years old four weeks from now. As part of these celebrations COSATU is to conduct a survey of workers, union members and non-members, to get their views on the labour movement and how well it is meeting their needs. It will be conducted by the Community Agency for Social Enquiry (CASE), with support from our research institute NALEDI.

This, the first scientific, national survey of workers’ needs and attitudes, will build on findings from recent smaller surveys and focus groups, including studies by the Sociology of Work Programme (SWOP) at Wits University. But this will be the first that is large enough to give us a systematic picture of workers’ opinions.

It will cover a sample of 3000 workers in randomly chosen houses within randomly chosen working-class communities, to ensure an unbiased sample, which will be representative in terms of race and gender.

The survey is part of COSATU’s ‘listening’ campaign. As we organise for the on-going mass action on jobs and poverty, we have deployed national office bearers across the country, to listen to workers in the workplace, workers’ forums and communities, to get a better picture of our members’ hopes, desires and needs.

With almost two million members, COSATU remains by far the largest union federation, with over half of all union members. But we cannot afford to be complacent. We face huge challenges, which have changed the conditions under which unions work.

Today our shop stewards and organisers, if they are to serve members properly, have to master complex legal skills. Many unions which grew very rapidly in the 1990s - doubling and tripling in size - have to work hard to consolidate this growth, and serve and educate their new members.

Trade unions’ main purpose is to give workers collective power - in the workplace and their industries and in national policy debates. We must protect workers every day in negotiations over pay and benefits, in grievances and disciplinary cases. So we need to know how well we are meeting members’ expectations in all these areas.

COSATU’s principles of worker control and democracy ensure that our leaders basically know what their members want, but as in any large democratic system, communication may break down. The survey should help us check on what we learn in our daily interactions with members. Specifically it should help us understand:


 * Why some workers don’t belong to a union - because they can’t find one, a dislike of unions, or a past experience of poor service?


 * What union members want, and what they are getting, from the unions. What demands workers want us to prioritise and how they feel about their shop stewards and organisers. Do our systems function properly to empower and serve members?

We are asking:


 * Are national stayaways a good tool for the labour movement?


 * Do workers know how to contact their union? What response have they got when they called on organisers?


 * What do workers want their union to prioritise in workplace negotiations – pay, benefits, employment equity, HIV, or other issues?

The survey does have limitations. The sample size is fairly small, primarily due to financial limitations. We will only be able to work in larger urban areas, although in every province. We are excluding workers from micro-enterprises. Major groups will be excluded, including farm, domestic, taxi and informal workers. From next year, focus groups will probe the views of these critical and most oppressed sections of the working class.

The sample size also means we will be able to reach realistic conclusions only about national trends and in some larger metro areas. We will not be able to analyse the results for smaller towns, or for most occupations and industries.

With CASE and Naledi, COSATU will analyse the results from January 2006 and present the findings to our 9th National Congress in September. Since the results will certainly be useful for a host of organisations besides COSATU, we will make the database available to other researchers.

Paul Notyhawa (Spokesperson), Congress of South African Trade Unions

1-5 Leyds Cnr Biccard Streets, Braamfontein, 2017

P.O.Box 1019, Johannesburg, 2000, South Africa

Cell: 082 4911 591

Tel: +27 11 339-4911/24

Fax: +27 11 339-5080/6940

E-Mail: paul@cosatu.org.za