Friday, January 11, 2013

South Africa: Farm Workers Union call to resume Western Cape's strikes and launch international boycotts

Violence that lead to two deaths of workers, and property damage that burned vineyards to the tune of 100 million Rand (South African currency's Rand = 0.12 USA fraction of a Dollar), when farmworkers wage demands rise from R60 to R150 -- "amid workers' demands for a doubling of wages to $17.50 a day. "  On this calculation, the farmworkers have taken their cue from the radical hard-rock drillers in the platinum mines where a massacre occurred in August last year.  But farmworkers are not in the same economic position as pluto-workers.  If farm-hand get their raises as demanded, they will set a trend among many other work sectors 1.) to demand increased pay for the new hi prices of fruit and wine in the markets; and 2.) to keep pace with the diminishment in status in comparison to the increase of status of farmworkers.  Employees in other sectors — like mechanics who are trained in important skills, office workers who know how to type, use dictation machines, and even file clerks with skills of literacy and digital record-keeping — cannot devalue their own skills and achievements.

Farmworkers, on the other hand, can show up in abundance just before the peak of the harvest and do hard work harvesting the fruit, but with fewer skills than in most sectors of the South African workforce, while there is a huge "reserve army of cheap labour" (Marx's term) competing for a relatively few jobs.  When we're talking about "entry-level" labour and a demand for a minimum wage of R150 in the context of the South African economy, the the factors of the farm-owners' break-even point for the farm operations and a margin of profit to see their families thru the entire year after harvest, and a reserve army of cheap labour : it's difficult to see how the Farmworkers Union can win.  Just to get such a social stratum organized is a remarkable feat for the Farmworkers own staff and leadership, to get the workers in the vineyards, orchards, and truck gardens  to pay dues consistently to the union is also remarkable, and to see them further motivated to strike and even commit violence (which union leaders know is counter-productive in the long-term but sometimes useful in the shorter term as a motivational tool toward total solidarity of the rank and file membership), leaves only the workers with no way out.  The farmers, at least, can mechanize as much of their operations as possible, if they can borrow the money from the banks who in making a loan are then positioned to have a say in the marketing of the harvested fruit and beverages.  A contract must be signed, but not with the workers, with the bankers.

Of course, the farm owners will then be in need of workers with special skills, to operate the machinery and keep it all in repair — so trained mechanics and machine operators with valid licenses will have increased opportunities, and they woud have a better chance to get "entry-level" wages approaching the R150 currently being demanded without the skills.  Of course, not only will licenses be required, and completion of apprencticeship certificates required of qualified mechanics, but employment on probationary terms in which the "entry-level" candidatate proves he/she (mostly "he" in today's South Africa) can actually do the work, arrive at work on time, finish a long gruelling day, and then come in again to the job the next day ... for six months or year during which it's easy to fire the guy because he can't (yet) fit into an industrial operation with far better wages than he coud receive as a  season or occasional farm-hand.  That's why it's important that South African farm labour realizes the difference between entry-level wage (minimum wage) and the wages of a skilled worker who has learned and accomodated industrial discipline.  The government has created a culture of sometimes wildly unrealistic expectations, and too many workers are projecting their fantasies of income equality with middle-class earners, based on unrealistic estimates of what middle-class workers pay in the way of industrial discipline so that managers and bosses want to hire them and pay them.   If you're going to be missing for five days after your paycheque in order to have fun shopping, you show your employer that you're not ready for the money he can pay you were you instead instead to show up on time and ready for work each day.  Of course, this scenario just painted is a caricature, but it's too true numerically speaking for the farmer-owner who is not paid to train workers with insufficient work habits and skills for his operations, on which he must realize not just the break-even point to pay for the machinery, but also on the profit side of the ledger, so that he and his family can get thru the year to the next harvest.

What this whole alternative scenario leaves us with, is the whole-sale loss of jobs in casual, seasonal, and occasional farm work, under the conditions of mechanization of farm operations.  Where will these farm workers go when they have outpriced themselves for the jobs currently available?  Why? are there "running battles between police and the strikers. Shooting and stone throwing is the order of the day in the area," said Nosey Pieterse, general secretary of the Bawsi Agricultural Workers' Union of South Africa (Bawusa).

South African labour and business, farmworkers and farm-owners, have some difficult decisions to face and I just don't see many joy-rides for anybody.   Except perhaps for some in the leadership of the unions.  Since the collapse of apartheid and the political revolution spearheaded by the African National Congress, the political and union leaders have often been conspicuous for their amazing growth in personal assets.  I wonder why.

— Albert Gedraitis


Business Day BD live (Jan11,2k13)


Paul Vecchiatto profile

Call to snub 

the fruits of Cape ‘slave 

labour’

by PAUL VECCHIATTO, 08 
JANUARY 2013, 06:09 | 8 COMMENTS



The Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry has voiced its strong disapproval of calls for a resumption of the Western Cape’s agricultural strikes.
Union leaders announced at the weekend that the strike would resume on Wednesday after a four-week hiatus. They have also called for an international boycott of the province’s produce, saying that it is produced under "slave labour" conditions.

Viola Manuel, Cape Chamber of Commerce executive director, on Monday condemned the calls for a boycott of Western Cape fruit and wine. She said once export markets were lost, they were almost impossible to regain.
"There is also a knock-on effect on other businesses that supply services and equipment." Employees at those companies will also be affected," she said.
Michael Bagraim, the chamber’s labour specialist, warned that drastic increases in farm worker wages would drive up production costs.
Coupled with uncertainty about the commitment of the labour force, it would leave farmers with no option but to mechanise, leading to a permanent loss of jobs, he said.
Department of Labour director-general Nkonsinathi Nhleko met union leaders on Monday and will meet Agri SA on Tuesday in a bid to avert the strike.
Mokgadi Pela, a spokesman for the department, said on Monday that a further round of public consultation would be held in the Western Cape over the wage demands.
The department held a series of national consultations up until December 13, but no finality was reached on wages.
Ms Manuel said that Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant had all the information needed to make a determination, but it was a matter of correctly analysing it.
"People are confusing a minimum wage with that of a living wage. The minimum is the entry-level wage," she said.
Farm workers went on strike in early November, demanding the sector’s minimum wage — determined by the labour department — be increased from R69 to R150. They are also demanding improved working and living conditions and an end to the "patronising manner" in which they are treated on the farms.
The violent strike has led to the deaths of two people and about R100m in damage to vineyards that were set alight.
Farmers have beefed up their protection in response, with many hiring specialist security firms.
Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu refererences in this newspaper) Western Cape secretary Tony Ehrenreich called on farm workers to desist from violence when the strike resumes tomorrow, but warned on his Facebook page on Monday this could occur.
"Cosatu calls for peace and no violence or property destruction during the strike, but warns the farmers and their security companies that if they continue with their ways that saw one farm worker killed, then there is going to be trouble," he wrote.