MORE WORKERS JOIN SUGARCANE UNION

More workers in Swaziland’s sugarcane industry are joining a trade union, following international condemnation of their working conditions.

The Swaziland Agricultural and Plantations Workers Union (SAPAWU) is reported to have made a positive impact to the workers. In one case at a farm with 70 employees, 50 have joined the union, the Swazi Observer newspaper reported on Friday (12 May 2017). 

In 2016, the International Trade Union Congress (ITUC) published a report called, King Mswati’s gold:  Workers’ rights and land confiscation in Swaziland’s sugar sector.

The ITUC said King Mswati III, who rules Swaziland as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, was one of the chief exploiters of workers. It said sugarcane production had brought about more human suffering than development in Swaziland. Many people had been evicted from land and the general conditions in the sugar industry were atrocious.

The opening sentences of the ITUC report said, ‘On 12 April 1973, King Sobhuza II decreed a national state of emergency thereby assuming total control over all aspects of Swazi public life. Political parties were banned and political activism was criminalised. Though the state of emergency was lifted in 2005, little has changed. The royal family has used Tibiyo Taka Ngwane, established in 1968 as a development fund, as the means to control the Swazi economy and to amass a large fortune.’

Tibiyo Taka Ngwane controls the sugar industry in Swaziland.

The ITUC report added, ‘The King is the sole trustee of Tibiyo and the fund is immune from all judicial review. As such, Tibiyo is able to compete unfairly in the economy, undermining local business and discouraging much-needed foreign investment (FDI).’

It added, ‘However, for workers employed in the sugar industry, the sector has no such lustre; instead, workers live in extreme poverty despite long hours and hard work generating wealth for the King. Trade union activities are highly repressed, and laws such as the Sedition and Subversive Activities Act, 1938, Public Order Act of 1963 and the Suppression of Terrorism Act of 2008 are used to suppress trade union activity.’

On trade union recruitment, SAPAWU Secretary General Mancoba Dlamini, told the Swazi Observer, ‘Workers have realised how much they benefit from joining hard unions as their voices are heard, they can either work in the sugar fields or offices, as they are affected in the same way.’ 

He added that most of the workers were adamant about joining unions especially because their managers threatened and victimised them. 

See also

HUMAN SUFFERING AND SWAZI SUGAR

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2016/11/human-suffering-and-swazi-sugar.html

KING EXPLOITS SUGAR WORKERS

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2016/10/king-exploits-sugar-workers.html

POLICE FIRE SHOTS AT WORKERS’ STRIKE

Riot police in Swaziland fired shots over the heads of striking workers who were protesting for an increase in pay of the equivalent of 35 US cents per hour.

Two shots were fired by the Royal Swaziland Police (RSP) when workers demonstrated outside the Plantation Forestry Company.

The strike has lasted more than nine days. Chairperson of the Swaziland Agriculture & Plantations Workers Union (SAPAWU) Sibusiso Masuku said workers demonstrated in front of a group of police. 

The Swazi Observer newspaper reported on Wednesday (25 August 2016) that one police officer fired two shots into the air, ‘which caused panic amongst the workers’. However, no one was hurt. 

The newspaper reported Masuku saying, ‘We were shocked by the gunshots but we are not backing down. It seems our complaints are not being heard by the administration. First we were told that we cannot hold our legal strike inside our work premises so we were forced to demonstrate along the dangerous road. 

‘Then we were allowed to picket inside the Plantation Company premises but now we want to take the strike to our work stations.’

Police in Swaziland regularly intervene on behalf of employers in industrial disputes. 

In October 2015 police fired shots and teargas at protesting textile workers at the Zheng Yong Garment factory in Nhlangano. They were protesting against the behaviour of security guards.

In June 2015, Swaziland was listed as one of the top ten worst countries in the world for workers’ rights. It was grouped alongside some of the worst human rights violators on the planet, including Belarus, China, Colombia, Egypt, Guatemala, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. 

See also

SWAZI HUMAN RIGHTS WORSEN: AMNESTY

http://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/swazi-human-rights-worsen-amnesty.html

PLIGHT OF SWAZI BUILDING WORKERS

Swaziland construction workers suffer from lack of health and safety support from their bosses, delays in payment of salaries, low wages below the government gazette rates, and they continue to work in difficult conditions with no freedom, according to Building and Wood Worker’s International (BWI), the global construction union.

The following article published today (31 March 2011) on the BWI website, reports on a trip made by a BWI ‘mission team’ to Swaziland.

SOURCE

Swaziland: ‘We are still using socks instead of gloves’

In a country where human and trade union rights have been wanting, health and safety conditions at workplaces remain worrying in construction sector. The Secretary General of the construction union brother Mtshali Selby sums it all in the following words, “We are still using socks instead of gloves”. In a sector where accidents rates are reportedly higher, is no surprise that lack of trade unions rights has created a gap for employers not to provide personal protective equipments.

“Most of the construction workers are not aware of the OHS [Occupational Health and Safety] Act and the role of OHS safety representatives”, reiterated Sis Zodwa Lukhele, the Education Coordinator of the Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions (SFTU). Noting that BWI has been supporting the Swaziland Forestry Union (SAPAWU) discussions emerged on how the trained representatives from SAPAWU can work with the construction union especially in aspects of occupational health and safety.

Among challenges recorded were delays in payment of salaries, lack of labor inspectorate, low wages below the government gazette rates and those unionists continue to work in difficult conditions with no freedom.

The mission team also visited Peak Timber limited, a wood industry, where the team discussed challenges of HIV/AIDs at workplace and learnt importance of workplace campaigns and wellness program on aspects of Voluntary Counseling and Testing (VCT). The mission also listened to challenges facing the forest and wood sector including retrenchments, outsourcing as well as repositioning of the industry in a competitive sector. It was noted from the discussion with management at Peak Timber that in future forest and wood workers need to be retrained. Future areas for union work include lobbying for retraining and new skills for the workers who are likely to serve new products lines that are emerging in the sector. Role of forest certification in workplace safety audit was also mentioned.

The mission team that visited Swaziland on 9 and 10th March included Yngve Daoson and Dennis Henningsson from LOTCO and Africa and Middle East BWI Education Officer Paul Opanga. The mission team made courtesy visit of Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions (SFTU) and held discussion with Secretary General Mduduzi Comfort Gina of SFTU on the trade union situation in Swaziland.