In a bid to highlight the massive job losses in the clothing and textile sectors, Sactwu delegates marched through the congress hall carrying clothes lines draped with thousands of pieces of fabric, each piece signifying a job lost in these sectors.

Giving background to the human tragedy, Sactwu general secretary, Ebrahim Patel, pointed out that in the last year clothing sales have increased from R24bn to R31,5bn. Instead of giving joy to local textile workers, companies' practice of buying from China have seen massive retrenchments locally.

In the first six months of this year, the rand's strength resulted in clothing imports from China becoming 40% cheaper.

The result – the value of clothing imports rose by 71% in the same period. And with 60% of SA's clothing coming from China , this is the equivalent of about 30-35000 local jobs.

Government's policy to lower tariffs below the binding rate of 66% to 40% has also not helped. Outlining the union's strategy to call for a section 77 in defence of textile workers' jobs and their livelihood, Sactwu called on Cosatu delegates to support the ‘buy local' campaign this year.

Source

Numsa News