WOMEN STRIKE OVER LIES ABOUT PAY

Workers went on strike at a major Taiwanese-owned textile factory in Swaziland to protest that the company had claimed its workers are well paid, when they are not.

Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou visited the Tex Ray factory in Matsapha on his recent tour of the kingdom because it was hailed as one of the best in Swaziland.

But workers at the Swazi factory who are mainly women became angry when they learned that the president had been told that their wages were good and it was possible for them to earn E2,000 a month salary.

Employees at Tex Ray refused to work when they heard the news and were seen toyi-toying and singing instead. They then staged a sit in at the factory.

They said Tex Ray management hid the truth of their plight from the president, local media reported. Workers said giving the president misleading information about their salaries had cost them an opportunity to get a reasonable salary adjustment because the president had seemed genuinely interested in the employees’ welfare.

The workers said they were not prepared to return to work until management increased their salaries to E2,000.

The textile industry in Swaziland is mostly owned by Taiwanese businesses and wages are so low that companies in South Africa have threatened to move their factories to Swaziland to avoid paying the minimum wage in that country.

It is believed that many workers in textile factories at present in Swaziland do not receive even the kingdom’s minimum wage that varies between E420 (US$57) a month for an unskilled worker and E600 (US $81) a month for a skilled worker.

Many women workers in the textile industry get paid much less than the minimum wage. A report in 2010 stated that employees in Matsanjeni typically earned E160 a month and were forced to turn to prostitution to survive.

Some women textile workers reported they earned E5.50 per hour (about 85 US cents) and had to live six to a room and three to a bed to get by. They tried to share food as the cheapest meal for one person costs E10 and a piece of fruit costs E1.

See also

EXPLOITATION BY TAIWAN TEXTILES

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2012/04/exploitation-by-taiwan-textiles.html

COST OF ‘FRIENDSHIP’ WITH TAIWAN

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2012/04/cost-of-friendship-with-taiwan.html

SWAZI TEXTILE PAY STRIKE ILLEGAL

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2012/03/swazi-textile-pay-strike-illegal.html

EXPLOITATION BY TAIWAN TEXTILES

Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou praised the Taiwanese-owned textile companies that operate in Swaziland during his visit to the kingdom, but failed to point out the exploitation that takes place in the factories.

He told some of the 6,000 workers that Tex Ray employs in its Swaziland factories that its owners really appreciated the effort made by the hardworking women. He encouraged them to work harder for a better life, according to media in Swaziland.

But, what he did not say was that all the profits the women help to make can go straight out of Swaziland back to Taiwan.

Media in Taiwan are describing Tex Ray as ‘a model of successful overseas investment’, and that was why President Ma Ying-jeou visited it during his trip to Swaziland, just ending.

Tex Ray Chairman Ray Lin was reported saying, ‘Whatever is taken from society will be used for society’ was the principle upon which Tex Ray runs its business.

In August 2010, Lutfo Dlamini, who was then Swazi Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation, told Taiwan journalists all profits made in the textile factories for Taiwan-owned companies could be taken out of the kingdom. He said that this made Swaziland a better place to set up factories than anywhere else in Africa.

And, the then Taiwanese ambassador to Swaziland Peter Tsai told reporters a distinguishing feature of Swaziland in terms of investment ‘is that it allows full repatriation of profits and dividends of enterprises operating in the country’.

Dlamini said in Swaziland, ‘We believe in this country. You invest your money. You make profits and you are able to take the profits away.’

There are about 25 Taiwanese-owned factories operating in Swaziland, mostly textile and garment manufacturers, employing about 15,000 people, many at close to slave wages. There have been numerous strikes by workers trying to get decent wages, but the pay is so poor that many women workers are paid wages so low they are unable to feed themselves properly and have to resort to prostitution.

But wages in Swaziland were still too high, according to Mason Ma, director and vice president of Tex Ray. He told reporters in 2010 that recent increases had pushed ‘wage levels higher than in some Southeast Asian countries such as Vietnam and Cambodia’.

Last month, the Swaziland High Court supported textile company Zheng Yong when it refused to pay its workers paid leave, when it claimed it could not afford to do so.

See also

MINISTER RAIDS TEXTILE FACTORY

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2012/04/minister-raids-textile-factory.html

SWAZI TEXTILE PAY STRIKE ILLEGAL

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2012/03/swazi-textile-pay-strike-illegal.html

COST OF ‘FRIENDSHIP’ WITH TAIWAN

President Ma Ying-jeou of Taiwan on his visit to Swaziland just ending said his country would ‘conditionally provide assistance’ to its diplomatic allies in Africa.

What he did not spell out was just what these conditions might be. But, Taipei observers know that it means that to get aid from Taiwan (officially known as the Republic of China) you have to give it in return international support for its continued diplomatic row with the People’s Republic of China (‘mainland’ China).

Taiwan is generally not recognised in the international community and is not allowed to sit in the United Nations (UN).

Taiwan wants to join the UN and Swaziland has a vote that could be used to support it. Because the People’s Republic of China does not want Taiwan in the UN, few countries support Taiwan. Those, like Swaziland, that do, get ‘friendship’, usually in the form of development aid or hotel trips to Taiwan for newspaper editors and politicians.

Taiwan has a policy of buying friendship with developing countries and Swaziland is one of these ‘friends’. Swaziland, ruled by King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, has few friends itself in the international community and seeks out help wherever it may be. The King had close ties with Colonel Muammar Gadaffi before the Libyan leader was toppled from power.

King Mswati finds himself isolated because democracies frown on the way he keeps his subjects under his thumb, as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, in a kingdom where all political parties and opposition groups are banned.

On his trip this week President Ma gave Swaziland 300 notebook computers worth US$300,000 and 1,080 metric tonnesof rice worth US$157,400 to help feed the hungry people in Swaziland, where seven in ten people earn less than US$2 a day.

In return, King Mswati gave the president a lavish state banquet and a medal.

While in Swaziland, President Ma said Taiwan would not oppose its allies’ trade links with China as long as they did not establish diplomatic ties.

And that was a not very subtle warning to Swaziland that it must pay for the ‘aid’ that it gets from Taiwan. Malawi found this out in March 2008 when it decided to support the People’s Republic of China. Taiwan immediately punished Malawi for this by withdrawing its aid from the country, regardless of how much suffering this would cause.

Instead, Taiwan transferred what should have gone to Malawi and gave it to Swaziland.