'Union boys in caps leading factory girls astray?' The politics of labour reform in Lesotho's 'feminised' garment industry

Journal of Southern African Studies

Volumn 31, Issue 1, 2005, Pages 95-115

  Gibbs, Tim ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF KWAZULU NATAL   (South Africa)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

GARMENT INDUSTRY; LABOR RELATIONS; LABOR STANDARD; TRADE UNION; WORKING CONDITIONS;

AFRICA; EASTERN HEMISPHERE; LESOTHO; SOUTHERN AFRICA; SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA; WORLD;

URTICA;

EID: 17444432652     PISSN: 03057070     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/03057070500035752     Document Type: Article

References (124)

1. According to a comprehensive survey of the apparel sector conducted in 2001, 11,100 workers were employed in factories making denim jeans; 18,500 in manufacturing knitwear garments; 2,200 were employed in operations that worked with both knitted and woven cloth; and 420 were employed in companies that conducted printing and embroidery operations. A. Salm, 'Lesotho Garment Industry Subsector Study for the Government of Lesotho' (unpublished paper, London, Department for International Development, 2002), p. 23.
2. R. Southall, 'The Labour Market and Trade Unions at the South African Periphery: Lesotho and Transkei', African Affairs, 93, 373 (October 1994), p. 584.
3. Southall, 'The Labour Market', p. 576 (quote), pp. 579-581 (details of unrest).
4. Ibid., p. 585.
5. Notably, G. Standing, 'Global Feminisation through Flexible Labour: A Theme Revisited', World Development, 27, 3 (March 1999), pp. 583-601.These arguments are often supported by the claim that global patterns of trade inevitably reduce wage costs resulting in declining labour standards. Economic debates lie outside the scope of this article, but it should be noted that comprehensive surveys on the textiles industry have concluded that whilst there have been downward pressures of labour costs, other production factors have been equally important. 'Some countries with relatively high labour costs have managed to maintain and even improve their international competitiveness ... In other cases, the abolition of trade barriers ... have attracted labour-intensive investments in a country in which labour costs, albeit it relatively low, are higher than those of traditional competitors.'
6. Labour Practices in the Footwear, Leather Textiles and Clothing Industries, (Geneva, International Labour Office, 2000), pp. 37-38.
7. C. Baylies and C. Wright, 'Female Labour in the Textile and Clothing Industry', African Affairs, 92, 369 (October 1993), p. 591.
8. Elsewhere in southern Africa, L. Bank, 'Angry Men and Working Women: Gender, Violence and Economic Change in Qwaqwa in the 1980s', African Studies, 53, 1 (1994), pp. 89-113.
9. C. Baylies and C. Wright, 'Female Labour', p. 577.
10. C. Wright, 'Female Singlehood and Urban Space in Lesotho', Review of Southern African Studies, 3, 2 (December 1999), p. 76.
11. Primary sources drawn upon include: newspaper articles - especially the English-language weeklies printed in Lesotho, Mopheme and The Southern Star, contemporary reports and documents; and key informant interviews. Newspapers can be obtained from the Cory Library, Rhodes University, Grahamstown and the Durban-based, Trade Union Research Project (TURP) also held a number of documents. TURP is now closed and the documents are archived in the Killie Campbell Library, Durban.
12. Accurate figures are often difficult to obtain. Here, the quoted employment figure was supplied by the Taiwanese Embassy in Pretoria, Business Day, 5 August 2003. P. Gibbon claims a workforce of 40,000 in an article entitled 'AGOA, Lesotho's "Clothing Miracle" and the Politics of Sweatshops', Review of African Political Economy, 96 (2003), p. 316.
13. While Salm, 'Lesotho Garment Industry', p. 23, estimated 32,200 were employed in 2001.
14. Most notably, J. Ferguson, The Anti-Politics Machine: Development, Depoliticisation and Bureaucratic Power in Lesotho (Berkley, California, Cambridge University Press, 1990).
15. For discussion in historic perspective, see D. Coplan and T. Quinlan, "'A Chief by the People": Nation Versus State in Lesotho', Africa, 67, 1 (1997), pp. 27-60.
16. Two different perspectives on this period are provided by: D. Coplan, 'In a State of Emergency: Democracy, Power and Nationalist Discourse', Transformation, 26, 1 (1995), pp. 47-62;
17. and Southall, 'The Labour Market and Trade Unions', pp. 576-582.
18. According to the US Government, the 'AGOA passed as part of The Trade and Development Act of 2000 provides beneficiary countries in Sub-Saharan Africa with the most liberal access to the US market available to any country or region with which the US does not have a Free Trade Agreement.' http://www.agoa.gov/faq/faq.html. Other institutions, most interestingly the World Bank, have been more sceptical about the results of AGOA. See P. Brenton and T. Ikezuki, The Initial and Potential Impact of Preferential Access to the US Market under the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (Washington DC, World Bank Policy Research Working Paper, 2004).
19. D. Coplan, In the Time of Cannibals: The Word Music of South Africa's Basotho Migrants (University of Chicago Press, 1994).
20. and T. Moodie, Going for Gold: Men, Mines and Migration (Johannesburg, Witwatersrand University Press, 1994).
21. Similarly, see J. Ferguson, Expectations of Modernity: Myths and Meanings of Urban Life on the Zambian Copperbelt, (Berkley, University of California Press, 1999).
22. In Africa, as elsewhere, trade unions are formed out of specific working cultures. For example N. Dennis, Coal is our Life: an Analysis of a Yorkshire Mining Community (London, Tavistock Press, 1969).
23. Mopheme, 9 June 2001.
24. Also, Mopheme, 15 September 2001.
25. Southall, 'The Labour Market', p. 568.
26. J. May, B. Roberts, G. Moqasa and I. Woolard, Poverty and Inequality in Lesotho (Geneva, UNDP, 2001).
27. Business Day, 5 August 2003.
28. Salm, 'Lesotho Garment Industry', pp. 57-58.
29. C. Wright, 'Female Singlehood', p. 88.
30. For a discussion of mineworkers, see A. Spiegel, 'Rural Differentiation and the Diffusion of Migrant Labour Remittances in Lesotho', in P. Mayer (ed.), Black Villagers in an Industrial Society: Anthropological Perspectives on Migration in South Africa (Cape Town, Oxford University Press, 1980), pp. 109-168.
31. P.Gibbon, 'AGOA', pp. 315-320.
32. It is difficult to account for this high incidence of female employment in Lesotho. C. Baylies and C. Wright, 'Female Labour', pp. 582-585, suggest a number of reasons that might explain this trend including: Lesotho's high female literacy rate; entrepreneurs from the Far East having historically employed women because of their presumed dexterity and docility; a high level of female migration into urban areas and high numbers of female-headed households.
33. Nevertheless, Lesotho would appear to counter the general trend noted in the that Labour Practices Survey, pp. 22-28, in the poorer regions, where work opportunities for men are likely to be less available than elsewhere, the share of female employment is lower'.
34. Salm, 'Lesotho Garment Industry', pp. 3&24. Of the 38 factories in Lesotho in 2001, 25 were subsidiaries of Taiwanese companies.
35. P. Gibbon, 'AGOA', pp. 315-317.
36. G. Hart, Disabling Globalisation: Places of Power in Post-Apartheid South Africa (Berkley California, University of California Press, 2002), p. 186.
37. As a designated Less Developed Country under the AGOA treaty, Lesotho was not required to source fabric from other AGOA countries during the first phase of the treaty. At the time of research, the second phase of the treaty, this waiver was likely to be rescinded. Taiwanese denim firms had acquired a textile mill in South Africa and were preparing to build a mill in Lesotho. Knitted cloth manufacturers were able to delay this investment decision.
38. This information was gathered whilst walking around a number of factory floors and speaking to union leaders about the structure of employment in the textiles industry. I have not been able to obtain statistics breaking down employment in the industry by race, gender and age. Another unexplored question is the skill composition of textiles trade union membership.
39. Hart, Disabling Globalisation, p. 189.
40. Interview, anonymous LECAWU shop steward, 3 November 2002.
41. Commercial Times (a Taipei newspaper), 4 December 2000.
42. Salm, 'Lesotho Garment Industry', pp. 42-43, also notes the particular unwillingness of Taiwanese manufacturers to negotiate with trade unions.
43. Salm, 'Lesotho Garment Industry', p. 43.
44. Ibid., pp. 46-47.
45. Ibid., p. 46.
46. Allegations that the government is hand-in-glove with the investors, as some have suggested, remain unproven. Claims of collusion, including claims of bribery and secret shareholding, remain rumours; and the company tax burden is light. A more reliable source of government income is probably obtained through management of service provision to industrial sites, expenditure on these projects totalling 54 million Maloti in 2001 alone. This is funded by foreign donors who apparently are alert to the difficulties inherent in managing development schemes. Ibid., pp. 37-42.
47. G. Hart, Disabling Globalisation, provides an alternative scenario to the situation noted here. In northern KwaZulu-Natal, some Taiwanese manufacturers have engaged with local elites, bringing in African manufacturers as subcontractors. One even attempted to become a local councillor for the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP).
48. Report on the Lesotho National Development Corporation, (unpublished paper, Prime Minister's Office, Maseru, 2000).
49. Report into Inspection in the Clothing, Textile and Leather Sectors (unpublished report, Lesotho Labour Commission, Maseru, 2001), p. 24.
50. The Four Ugly Faces of Poverty and their Scars in Lesotho (Government Report, Ministry of Planning, Maseru, 2000).
51. The Southern Star, 15 March 2002.
52. L. Lethobane, 'Freedom of Association, Trade Union Rights and the Application of ILO Conventions', Lesotho Law Journal, 10, 1 (1997), p. 106.
53. For a detailed overview of legislation see L. Madhuku, 'The Right to Strike in Southern Africa', International Labour Review, 136, 4 (Winter 1997), pp. 509-530.
54. Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Lesotho 2000 (US State Department Report, Washington, 2001), http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/ hrrpt/2000/af/843.htm
55. The question still remains as to why trade unionism should be the appropriate form of politics that fits the life experiences of women workers who work in a highly unstructured labour market. Baylies and Wright's potted biographies of a number of factory operatives suggest that they can in no sense be seen as a stable workforce, permanently settled in urban areas: 'Female Labour', pp. 586-587.
56. It is often very difficult to find out accurately who is involved in such incidents, as many of these demonstrations are chaotic. Details of those injured during the 2003 wage demonstrations, mentioned later in this article - the vast majority being women - might give a rough idea of the composition of such crowds.
57. Many of these tensions emerged again in the constitutional crisis later that year.
58. 15 February 1998. Also other reports in The Southern Star and Mopheme, February and March 1998; interview, Sam Mokhele, LECAWU Regional Organiser, Maseru, 15 October 2002; interview, Shaw Lebakae, LECAWU Deputy General Secretary, Maseru, 21 October 2002.
59. Gibbon, 'AGOA', pp. 317-318.
60. Accurate membership figures are difficult to obtain. Gibbon 'AGOA', p. 317, states that LECAWU claimed a total membership of 19,000 in 2003 (47.5 per cent density assuming the industry employs 40,000) of which 11,000 had paid membership fees. There had only been 4,000 fully paid members at the end 2001.
61. Salm, 'Lesotho Garment Sector', p. 56, was told by LECAWU in 2001 that the union had 8-9,000 workers in permanent employment and 7,000 amongst casual labour. He believes these figures broadly correspond with an earlier study that calculated that 44 per cent of the workforce had allegiance to LECAWU. Government figures are much lower, estimating only 10 per cent of the workforce in 2002 were fully paid-up members of the union, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Lesotho 2003 (Washington, US State Department Report, 2004) http://www.state.gov/g/ dri/rls/hrrpt/2003/27734.htm.
62. Southall, 'The Labour Market and Trade Unions', p. 575.
63. Interview, Robert Loftis, US Ambassador to Lesotho, Maseru, 28 October 2002.
64. Interview, Macaefa Billy (LECAWU General Secretary 1994-2001), Maseru, 20 October 2002.
65. I am unsure whether he was referring to the Lesotho Allied Clothing and Textiles Workers' Union or the Lesotho Amalgamated Clothing and Textiles Workers' Union, both of which were apparently active in the early 1990s - an indication of the instability of the trade unions, even if the claims of mismanagement may not be justified.
66. Interview, Macaefa Billy.
67. The LTEA represents most of the largest Taiwanese companies whom operate a total of 20 plants, P. Gibbon, 'AGOA', p. 318.
68. Interview, Shaw Lebakae.
69. Interview, Robert Loftis; Interview, Shaw Lebakae.
70. Interview, Macaefa Billy.
71. Interview, Shaw Lebakae.
72. Coplan, In the Time of Cannibals, pp. 169-170.
73. More generally, A. Spiegel, 'Polygamy as Myth: Towards Understanding Extramarital Sexual Relations in Lesotho', African Studies, 50 (1991), pp. 145-166.
74. Mopheme, 19 September 2000.
75. Also Wright's account of 'Female Singlehood' and the lives of women garment workers.
76. Editorial, 'Our Productive Women Deserve Better', The Southern Star 25 May 2001, p. 4. This view of a woman's role as wage earner appears to be widespread in Lesotho:
77. E. Francis, 'Gender, Migration and Multiple Livelihoods', Journal of Development Studies, 38, 5 (June 2002), pp. 167-190.
78. Interview, Macaefa Billy.
79. Membership statistics and therefore gender ratios are difficult to obtain. A hospital report indicating that 85 per cent of people who were injured at a union march in 2003 were women (and therefore probably members of the union) is congruent with other researchers' reports that around 80 per cent of employees in the Lesotho garment industry are female.
80. Interview, Maleraro Koatja, Second Vice President of LECAWU, Maseru, 28 October 2002. The example of Marashanala Ramaliehe, mentioned later in the article, a LECAWU shop steward who led a strike at the C&Y Clothing factory, also illustrates these issues.
81. J. Schakowsky, 'Press Release and Open Letter to The GAP: Members of Congress Demand End to Worker Abuse in Gap Factories as Evidence Mounts of Widespread Intimidation, Exploitation and Sweatshop Conditions', accessed 8 December 2002, available at http://www.house.gov/apps/list/ press/i109_schakowsky/pr05_16_2002gap.html. I am told that the video of the stabbing was taken from closed circuit television footage that had naïvely been released in the belief that it showed the injury to be accidental.
82. Interview, Marashanala Ramaliehe, LECAWU shop steward, Maseru, 5 November 2002; interview, Shaw Lebakae.
83. Ironically, recompense for physical assault - placing a price on a woman's body - can be argued to be a rather insidious form of redress reinforcing patriarchal practice. The compensation payment was spent on building an extension to her father-in-law's house.
84. Editorial, 'Nien Hsing: A Victory in Southern Africa', International Textile Sector Africa News, (union pamphlet, Durban, July 2002), pp. 10- 11; interview, Lebakae; interview, anonymous LECAWU shop stewards, Maseru, 25 October 2002; interview, Gary Phillips. One might suggest that The GAP had positively engaged with the trade unions in this case because the 'video evidence' was damning and they were offered an opportunity to positively resolve the situation. Even so, there were persistent rumours that the Compliance Officers were ineffective, an impression reinforced by their secretiveness, which perhaps indicated their uncertainty.
85. Gibbon, 'AGOA', raises some of the dilemmas that international campaigners have encountered in Lesotho. He may well be discussing some of the better 'stop sweatshop' campaigns. Other organisations are better at attracting starlets and broadsheet editorials (all of which brings such groups publicity and funding) than coherently planning how their interventions will benefit the workers they claim to represent.
86. 'Solidarity on AGOA: Towards a Comprehensive Partnership between the Solidarity Centre, African Unions and Global Unions', (unpublished draft report, Johannesburg, August 2002).
87. A disgruntled LECAWU member quoted in Mopheme, 13 March 2003.
88. The Wall Street Journal, 23 May 2001.
89. US Trade Department, Comprehensive Report on AGOA.
90. The Weekend Observer A Swazi newspaper , 28 December 2002.
91. Lurid allegations often circulate around the periphery of the factually accurate reports produced by international groups. Foreign media, of course, prefer the more colourful stories. The Weekend Observer, 28 December 2002, noted that, 'LECAWU's Secretary Daniel Maraisane told more than 400 workers that some Chinese firms were kicked out of Lesotho for continuously defying tabour laws. Maraisane said he was willing to provide a list of firms ... but at the time had not brought the list with him'.
92. Interview, Loftis. A detailed discussion of the debates between UNITE and the US government over trade liberalisation and whether international labour standards are used as a Trojan Horse by protectionist interests are beyond the scope of this article. For a sensible overview, see E. Lee, 'Globalisation and Labour Standards: A Review of the Issues', International Labour Review, 136, 2 (Summer 1997), pp. 173-174.
93. The Washington Post, 14 April 2002. By contrast, the US government and the American Federation of Labour and Confederation of Industrial Organisations, in conjunction with the Cambodian government and unions, brokered an agreement in 1999 that led to the ILO running a systematic programme of labour reform in the Cambodian garment industry.
94. Deposition sent by M. Malie, Minister of Trade and Industry, to LECAWU, June 2002.
95. In 2001, for example, the government successfully sued and subsequently bankrupted newspaper editor, Candi Ramainoane. However, as an indication that Lesotho's politics is moderating somewhat, in the mid-1990s he had faced death threats and arson by groups reportedly linked to political parties.
96. Interview, Mamohale Matsoso, Lesotho Labour Commissioner, Maseru, 20 October 2002.
97. US Bureau of Democracy, Lesotho Country Report.
98. Letter from T. Makeka of the Association of Lesotho Employers quoted in, 'Organising to End the Slave Trade: Building and Organising Campaigns in the Lesotho Garment Sector' (unpublished pamphlet, Workers' College, Durban, 2002).
99. 'Report of Inspection in the Clothing, Textile and Leather Industries' (unpublished report, Labour Commission, Maseru, 2001). This report had followed a fact-finding mission and campaign report carried out by the Dutch group, SOMO.
100. Interview, Mamohale Matsoso.
101. I b i d.
102. The Washington Post, 14 April 2002.
103. Interview, Maxwell Makhasane, Nien Hsing Deputy Personnel Manager, 1 November 2002.
104. 'Information Bulletin', 2, 12 (pamphlet, Maseru, Directorate of Dispute Prevention and Resolution, 9 May 2002).
105. Mopheme, 30 July 2002.
106. Interview, CGM Personnel Manager, Maseru, 22 October 2002.
107. Willy Mats'eo, senior LECAWU official, personal communication, 26 February 2003.
108. Mopheme, 13 March 2003.
109. According to US Government figures that claimed paid-up union membership declined from 10 per cent of the workforce to 2 per cent, (Country Reports: Lesotho 2003). The only labour campaign group (as far as I am aware) to cover the union division has been Specialarbejderforbundet i Danmark (SiD), www.sid.dk.
110. Editorial, 'Organise or Perish', The Southern Star, 10 May 2002.
111. Mopheme, 13 March 2003.
112. A copy of the letter from Shaw Lebakae, Deputy General Secretary of LECAWU to the Prime Minister of Lesotho, 28 October 2003, e-mailed to a list of international supporters in the same week.
113. Mopheme, 12 November 2003.
114. United Nations Integrated Regional Information Networks (UNRIN), 10 November.
115. 'Country Reports: Lesotho 2003'; UNRIN, 10 November 2003. Mopheme, 12 November 2003, claims that live ammunition was used.
116. Sam Mokhele, now an organiser for FAWU, quoted in UNRIN, 11 November 2003.
117. UNRIN 12 November 2003.
118. Mopheme, 12 November 2003. Confusingly, the first report, based upon a hospital press release, stated that five marchers had been killed; another newspaper report mentions three deaths, and the majority claim two.
119. I b i d.
120. Conversation, V. Tyhali, Secretary General, Congress of Lesotho Trade Unions - to which FAWU was affiliated - Geneva, 9 June 2004.
121. G. Hart, Disabling Globalisation.
122. Bank, L. 'Angry Men and Working Women'; Africa Confidential, 21 October 1997.
123. E. de Hahn and G. Phillips, 'Assessing the Trade and Investment Agenda: Some Results from the SADC Campaigns for Clean Clothes into Working Conditions in SADC-based Garment Manufacturers' (Unpublished Draft, Trade Union Research Project, 2002), p. 15.
124. W. Beinart, Twentieth Century South Africa (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1994). The introduction comments on southern African historiography and its limitations.