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South Africa:Unions equally responsible for the textile
crisis – says opposition leader Tony Leon |
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2005-4-11
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Denouncing the Government policy, opposition leader Tony Leon said the local unions were also equally responsible for the pathetic state of the textile industry today.
"As job losses mount, the trade union barons are trying to enforce all sorts of uncompetitive practices and protective rules," he said on Friday.
He argued that while about 20 000 textile jobs losses are reported each year, unions according to him were merely considering simplistic view of the crisis in the textile and clothing sectors.
"They are blaming Chinese imports — just as the National Party used to raise fears of the ''''rooi gevaar'''' and the ''''swart gevaar''''," he said.
He said that government could not ignore the Chinese challenge by curbing imports, it was the unions who forced up local costs.
"South African textile manufacturers are obliged to pay an average wage of $2.40 per hour to a sewing machine operator in an urban area.
It is simply impossible for them to compete with manufacturers in Hebei province in China who pay $0.40 per hour to workers in comparable positions," he said.
Leon felt that salaries of textile workers should be based along a performance reward strategy.
The SA Clothing and Textile Workers'' Union (Sactwu) was particularly criticized by Leon for their uncompromising stance on labour wages.
Sactwu, lead by Ebrahim Patel, threatened to cost the industry another 60 000 jobs if his plans to close down companies for failing to comply with bargaining council agreements, is successful, he said.
"But these manufacturers — usually small- and medium-sized enterprises, account for more than 80 percent of the total numbers of manufacturers nationwide — 70 percent in KwaZulu-Natal and 30 percent in the Western Cape," Leon said, noting their closure would be catastrophic.
He said the growth of the export market had slowed to a crawl due to inflexible wages and heavy-handed regulations.
"South African manufacturers are relocating to other African countries to escape what is becoming a more and more restrictive business environment," he said.
He said that because of the union''s attitude, companies were forced to raise prices to accommodate higher costs and then cut jobs to stay in business.
"So Mr Patel''s protectionism hurts the poor twice: first as consumers and then as workers," he argued.
He accused labour unions of passing off the Proudly South African campaign to enforce "protectionist goals under the guise of patriotism," by deliberately enforcing it on local retailers to buy from only Proudly South African suppliers.
He said with sarcasm, "Instead of promoting South African jobs, they are crushing them." |
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