SACTWU AND RETAILERS SIGN GROUNDBREAKING DECLARATION ON
THE APPAREL INDUSTRY
5 December 2003
After weeks of intense negotiation between Sactwu, the Southern
African Clothing and Textile Workers Union, and major retailers and
asset managers, the parties today signed a historic declaration in
favour of "buying local".
The process leading up to today´s declaration was initiated by
Sactwu, when it tabled a Section 77 notice of possible protest
action to Nedlac in August this year. The notice was directed at
retailers and their banks and asset managers, and argued that the
sourcing decisions of retailers were resulting in job losses in the
clothing, textile and leather industry, amongst other issues. In
terms of the suppliers of capital, Sactwu argued that banks and
asset managers benefit from the sourcing practices of retailers,
and can have leverage over their corporate behaviour.
Today, two declarations were signed - one with retailers and
another with the finance sector. These declarations were the result
of several meetings between the parties, facilitated by Nedlac.
The retailers who signed the declaration were: Pick 'n Pay;
Shoprite Checkers; Woolworths; Foschini; Pepkor and Edcon.
Retailers´ declaration:
The declaration commits the signatories to use their efforts,
particularly their buying decisions, to promote higher levels of
procurement from South African manufacturers, in an effort to
create employment or save jobs in South Africa.
The declaration covers a period of six months, during which time
the parties will continue to engage with each other with the
purpose of developing a broader agreement on local procurement of
apparel and in the home textile and footwear industries. The
parties will try to ensure the involvement of South African
manufacturers in order to consider ways of strengthening and
enhancing South African manufacturing. Nedlac will convene the
meetings, which will take place at least once per month. The first
meeting will take place in January 2004.
In terms of the declaration, each retailer who is currently
sourcing up to 75% of its apparel products from South African
manufacturers will meet with Sactwu in bilateral discussions to
discuss its levels of South African procurement and ways of
increasing its South African procurement. Individual
retailers may also need to negotiate with Sactwu on a bilateral
basis to deal with such retailer´s specific issues.
Finance sector declaration
Finance sector representatives who signed today: Old Mutual
Asset Management; Metropolitan Asset Management; Futuregrowth Asset
Management; Independent Black Fund Managers Association; Oasis;
Trilinear; Rocklands; Real Africa; Cerebral; Merit.
In terms of the declaration of Sactwu and the finance sector,
the sector agreed to encourage the Clothing Retail sector,
particularly in the application of their buying decisions, to
promote higher levels of local procurement in an endeavour to
create employment or save jobs in South Africa. Specific
commitments included agreements on:
- Support for the buy local campaign in the industry.
- Trustees of Retirement Funds to be encouraged to shift
resources to companies that are committed to long term sustainable
development in the country.
- An undertaking to impress on the clothing retailers to support
the buy local declaration.
During the currency of the declarations, Sactwu will not embark
upon any protest action in relation to the dispute referred to
Nedlac in terms of section 77 of the Labour Relations Act, against
the retailers who are signatories to this declaration.
The declarations are particularly significant in that they speak
directly to many of the issues contained in the Growth and
Development Summit agreement, signed between business, government,
labour and community in June this year. In terms of the GDS
agreement, parties recognised the potential value of a label of
origin in giving consumers better information in their buying
decisions. In today´s declaration, the parties agree to take all
necessary steps to ensure that their apparel products carry labels
reflecting the country of origin as well as ensuring that all
apparel products ordered for manufacture after the date of signing
of the declaration carry labels reflecting the concerned apparel
product´s country of origin.
Background
The notice was tabled in terms of Section 77 of the Labour
Relations Act, No 66 of 1995 as amended, which allows registered
trade unions or federations of trade unions to undertake protest
action to promote and protect the social and economic interests of
workers, if they follow certain procedures. Before embarking on
protest action, the trade union concerned is required to serve
notice on Nedlac stating the reasons for the protest action and the
intended nature of the protest action. The Act requires the Nedlac
parties to meet with the trade union and the parties at whom the
notice is directed, to consider the issues raised. Should the
issues remain unresolved after thorough consideration, workers are
entitled to participate in protected protest action 14 days after
serving a second notice on Nedlac of their intention to proceed
with the action.
Contact Jennifer Wilson on 083 652 8524