New Report Documents Working Conditions in Southern Africa

A just-released (December 2002) report entitled "Made in Southern Africa" documents the findings of a two-year research project that investigated garment industry conditions in Swaziland, Botswana, Mauritius, Madagascar, and Lesotho. The picture is not pretty.

Researchers, from the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO) in the Netherlands and the Trade Union Research Project (TURP) in South Africa, found a variety of serious workplace problems, ranging from union repression and low wages to forced overtime and health and safety concerns. This lengthy report (97 pages) includes a profile of the industry in each of the countries studied, as well as individual factory profiles and a discussion of the impact of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), the expansion of the US General System of Preferences that went into effect in 2000, on the garment industry.

Prior to this study, carried out between 2000 and 2002, there had been little documentation of working conditions in this sector in the region. The vast amount of information gathered together in this report will be useful to those seeking to get a better grasp of the reality faced by garment workers in Southern Africa. The researchers involved in this project stress that their aim was to carry out campaign-oriented research, i.e. connect their findings to good use by having a link to worker organizing or education efforts, and direct action initiatives to pressure companies for improvements in the industry and the empowerment of garment workers. The chapter on Lesotho demonstrates the potential of a commitment to such follow up to research, documenting the events that took place to date following the dissemination of the research findings there, including a government level investigation into industry conditions.

To get a copy of this informative report, please contact the CCC
International Secretariat (e-mail: info@cleanclothes.org).

Or download it in pdf from this website: 3284 kb)