No Cosatu 2010 will not create sustainable jobs in apparel industry

In light of the story about Bafana Bafana and Fifia clothing products not 100% South African, the statement from COSATU about the importance 2010 is for the South African apparel sector is such a farce. I have emailed COSATU's spokesperson asking if he can please explain the contradiction to his statements below in regard to the story about Made in China Bafana Bafana products. I look forward to his response.

Fake jerseys uncovered
Written by CAJ News
Wednesday, 27 January 2010

JOHANNESBURG - South Africa Customs officials seized fake jerseys for Bafana Bafana, T-shirts and caps which were destined for sale in the country.
The Bafana Bafana sports kit was seized at Oliver Tambo International Airport on Friday. The seizure was welcomed by Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), who congratulated the vigilant customs officers for discovering and confiscating the counterfeit goods.
"COSATU believes that the first World Cup in Africa must not only be a great historic event in itself but must also leave us a legacy of new jobs. The clothing and textile industry has already been hit hard by the recession and the flood of cheap imports from China and elsewhere.
"The 2010 tournament ought to be creating new opportunities for the sector and new jobs in manufacturing the genuine World Cup merchandise," said COSATU spokesperson, Patrick Craven.

SAFA & FIFA Official Supporter Range: not 100% South African

By: Renato Palmi
26 January 2010

In November 2008, SLAM (SAFA Legal and & Management) announced the launch of the United Bafana Bafana official supporter range under the vision of “Dress the Nation”. Its PR blurb expressed the commitment that “to contribute to the growth and further development of the South African clothing and textile industry, SLAM is working closely with Proudly South Africa to ensure that by 2010 the majority of Bafana Bafana’s apparel range will be manufactured in South Africa”.

With the Fifa African Confederation Cup event behind us and the 2010 FIFA World Cup tournament around the corner, just how much of the official supporter apparel merchandise is being made in South Africa?

Over the last few months, I have posed this question to SAFA, to FIFA, to a retail chain and to contacts in the South African clothing industry, but am still none the wiser. So I decided to conduct some basic fieldwork in a large sports retail outlet at the GateWay mall in Durban last week, surreptitiously surveying the labels of various items. What did I find?

Bafana Bafana woven Beanies are made in China.

The swing tag on Bafana Bafana floppy hats confirms their status as official merchandise of the South African Football Association, and that the purchase of this product would contribute to the development of soccer in South Africa – but the hats are made in China.

A white T-shirt with “Bafana Bafana” screen-printed on the front is identified as being manufactured by Sarragan AG – a Swiss “globally active corporation in the clothing and sporting goods industry with a focus on licensed products." Its website proclaims that "as a global organisation, we emphasize social conditions of employment and environmental friendly products in compliance with all requirements." The T-shirt, retailing at R160-00, bears a “Made in China” label.

A blue Fifa T-shirt with a large plastic iron-on Fifa logo (of such poor quality that the image is already cracking) is selling at R100-00 with a “Made in Mauritius” label.

FIFA bags (similar to shopping bags), with a very poorly silk-screened one-colour Fifa logo on brown fabric, are made in Pakistan. The bag is a very simple design, with no plastic panel reinforcing its base. This stock could easily have been made by some of the hundreds of South African income-generating community projects, thus empowering their members with skills and allocating a percentage of the proceeds to HIV/AIDS and poverty alleviation interventions. Juxtapose this concept with the fact that Pakistan’s textile and clothing industry contributes 40% of its manufacturing employment base, accounting for 8.2% of its gross domestic product for the year July 2007 to June 2008, and exporting US$ 10.6 billion in related goods during this period.

It is widely known that a Made in China label connotes production under sweat-shop conditions. In April last year, ANC spokesperson Jessie Duarte blamed suppliers for the party’s election T-shirts having been made in China. Unless SLAM can prove that their suppliers have sourced the official licenced apparel items from manufacturers that meet international labour regulations, we can be forgiven for presuming that this failure in accountability and social concern for South Africa’s crippled job market prevails.

The apparel industry in Mauritius relies on imported labour from China and India, and an estimated 22 000 foreign workers are employed on the island. In 2007, the UK news agency Mail Online reported that a new Kate Moss TopShop fashion range was using sweatshops on the island to make the garments, where "Sri Lankans, Indians and Bangladeshis toil for 12 hours a day, six days a week, for minimal pay." Studies show that the Mauritian textile and clothing sector is of critical importance to the economic success of the country, contributing 12% to its GDP between 1990 and 2000.

In 2009, South African trade unions urged FIFA and the 2010 Soccer World Cup's Local Organising Committee (LOC) to ensure that the licenced apparel would not come out of sweatshops. The International Textile and Garment Leather Workers' Federation called upon FIFA to disclose the origins of the products. The Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers' Union (SACTWU) has reportedly signed an agreement with the LOC that all producers of FIFA-branded sportswear in South Africa should be members of the clothing bargaining council.

Will the unions follow-up and ask for verification of the Chinese, Mauritian and Pakistani suppliers?

Should we not, as consumers, be demanding such verification?

It is one thing to “dress the nation” – but what about “redress for our nation”?

 
For more click here
 
 
Reference:
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/19860675/United-4-Bafana-Bafana-%E2%80%93-Official-Supporter-Range-Launch-FOR 24 November 2008
Textile Intelligence: www.textileintelligence.com November 2009
Mail Online, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-474892/Topshop-accused-using-slave-labour-produce-Kate-Moss-range.html August 2007.
Business Day, August 2009

Not a good start for SA Textile Sector

Another clothing group shuts

2010/01/19
Jana Marais

Johannesburg - With local manufacturers struggling to compete against international products, another South Africa textile group is going to close down.

SA Fine Worsteds, manufacturer of worsted for wool suits among other things, has informed its employees that it is going to close its two factories, in Maitland and Atlantis. At least 325 people will lose their jobs.

"Where many companies that were struggling last year now only need operating capital to keep their heads above water, SA Fine's problem is that it is getting fewer and fewer orders. Whereas many suits were made in South Africa in the past (from local textiles), more and more ready-made suits are now being imported,' Etienne Vlok, a researcher at the South African Clothing and Textile Workers' Trade Union (Sactwu) says.

In addition, the international demand for its products has also fallen sharply, Vlok says. At the time of publishing, the company had not responded to enquiries. Some 13 400 people were laid off in the clothing, textile and footwear industry in the first 11 months of 2009. In this period, 65 factories were closed, according to Sactwu figures.
One of the major victims was the Seardel subsidiary Frame, which closed a factory in KwaZulu-Natal. That move cost 1 400 workers their jobs. Though these labour-intensive industries enjoy special support from the government as part of its industrial strategy, there has so far been little success in halting the stream of job losses in the industry during the past few years.

A lot of blame is being placed on the government's dragging of its feet to fully implement a tailor-made sector programme, which would include things like cheaper financing for equipment and training programmes.

The Department of Trade and Industry informed Sake24.com last week that the programme has at last been finalised, and an application for financing has been submitted to the National Skills Fund. It is not known how long it will take to obtain the financing, which is expected to amount to about R357.8m over the next five years.

- Sake24.com

sports clothing and sweatshops

Ethical Clothing in the Sports Industry

With South Africa hosting the 2010 FIFA World Cup I thought the following information on the working conditions related to the manufacturing  of sportswear brands would be of interest.

I have tried to find out from various sources including FIFA about FIFA related apparel merchandise that is being and will be sold in South Africa. My questions to FIFA and the SA apparel and retail industry is what percentage of FIFA merchandise will be made by South African clothing companies? The response … still waiting.

In response to protests about working conditions in their supply factories, some sportswear brands have developed labour rights monitoring and compliance programs and taken action on a number of issues and cases. Despite these efforts, substantial violations of worker rights and poverty wages are still the norm for workers in the sportswear industry Click here for an interesting read.

strike action in China and a decent wage

A little old but I thought it would be of interest.

China: Strike by 3,000 women workers

November 15, 2009
“The strike started after the management said a worker could not get year-end bonus if her production efficiency failed to reach 50 percent of the average level last year,” Mo Xiaohui, a worker at the plant told Xinhua. “That was impossible for most of us as the production dropped sharply in the financial crisis.”

“The boss wants to cut our bonus worth about 700 yuan (102 U.S. dollars), even if our monthly salary is as low as between 500 yuan and 600 yuan (73 to 88 U.S. dollars),” said a worker named Li Guihua. “It’s going too far.”

By Friday the company agreed to pay all workers their bonus, but workers decided to continue their strike over their other demands, Han Lirong, head of the firm’s official (state-controlled) union, was quoted as saying. Workers across China’s manufacturing sector, many of them migrants without job protection or rights to medical insurance and pensions, have suffered pay cuts this year as the global capitalist crisis has battered China. The government’s stimulus measures have helped save the rich, big companies and corrupt officialdom, but have not benefited factory workers and the poor. “Now we have to go on strike as we have long been asking the company to accept our demands,” Mo said.

In addition to protesting over the threatened cut in bonuses, the Triumph workers are demanding the company raise wages to the minimum national standard and provide employees with normal levels of leave. Huang Xueyan, the company’s personnel manager, said the negotiation was hard as workers would not select representatives to talk with the management. This is not surprising! It just shows the difficulties facing workers during labour disputes in China, where genuine independent trade unions are outlawed. The Haikou workers have undoubtedly decided not to put forward individual representatives for fear of victimisation by the company or by the state – on grounds that their strike “undermines stability”.

Triumph International’s record

Triumph International, which has its global headquarters in Switzerland, had an annual turnover of 1.6 billion euros in 2003, with 38,691 employees in 120 countries. The company is no newcomer to accusations of labour abuses and union-busting. In June this year it closed down two factories in the Philippines and halved its Thai workforce as part of a global ‘restructuring’ plan. The moves were widely seen as a ploy to smash the unions at its operations in these countries. Earlier this year, the company’s wholly-owned subsidiary Body Fashion Thailand, dismissed union president Jitra Kotshadej for taking part in a national television debate wearing a t-shirt with the text ‘Thinking differently is not a crime’.

Workers from the Philippines and Thailand units of Triumph International, supported by Hong Kong trade unions and migrant groups, staged a protest in August 2009 outside the company’s offices in Kowloon Bay, Hong Kong. They were protesting about Triumph’s closure plan with the retrenchment of 1,663 workers in the Philippines, and the loss of almost 2,000 jobs in Thailand.

“When it comes to profit, Triumph International is so fast to extract wealth from us but when it comes to obligation and responsibility, they are now running away.” Isabelita dela Cruz, a spokeswoman and union representative from the Philippines. “We cannot wait for any longer because our families and children in the Philippines and in Thailand are suffering and live in miserable condition. Many of our children stop schooling and soon we will be ejected from our homes.”

-ends-

Stitching a Decent Wage

A good read. Click here
The garment industry around the world is renowned for low wages, excessive overtime and poor working conditions. In many cases, even the legal minimum wages set for workers in the apparel industry fail to provide enough income to maintain a family of four above the nationally defined poverty level. The consequences of poverty wages are most clearly seen in excessive working hours and disrupted family life. Poverty wages push many workers into debt, lead to malnutrition, cause health problems, and make workers and their dependents extremely vulnerable to unemployment, disability, and faster decline in old age. What is more, growing inequality within a country can reduce social cohesion and result in unrest.

General Updates Jan 2010

China's Clothing Sector Grows

It seems that the global financial crisis did not have such an adverse impact on China's apparel and textile industries according to a new report

Export values of textile and apparel products from the Southern coastal Guangdong Province grew by 6.3% year on year to reach USD 2.36 billion. The duty drawback is offered to offset the incidence of customs duty, service tax, and central excise duty on export items. This duty given to the Chinese apparel exporters were revised five times from 11% to 17%.

Years of investment in high quality facilities focus on orders and keeping up with the delivery times have been the key factors for their success. Credit facilities offered by the banks, government instructions to exporters, abolition of quotas by US, and EU on Chinese apparel imports have also supplemented their export figures.

Ref: Fibre2fashion.com

Bangladeshi knitwear industry looks at Africa

The knitwear industry is the most significant component in the textile industry of Bangladesh. It is the second largest sector in the country constituting a 32% of share in the export market. Availability of abundant and cheap labor, easily trainable workforce, and policy support from the government offer competitive advantages to the industry. The growth of the knitwear industry has motivated the manufacturers to explore new markets. Knitwear manufacturers in Bangladesh are beginning to explore the African market. During the financial year 2009, exports of woven and knit garment exports to South Africa amounted to $42.51million USD.

Ref: Fibre2fashion.com

South Africa's Apparel Sector Output Declines

Local manufacturing output contracted by 4,7% year-on-year in November, the least negative growth rate recorded, to date, in 2009, according to Statistics South Africa. The contraction in manufacturing production had slowed to a negative growth of 9,6% year-on-year in October last year, a vast improvement on the record decline of 21,6% recorded in April 2009.The South African clothing and textile and footwear industries contributed to the national decline in manufacturing output. These sector saw a 9.2% decline. In output.