Re-Membering1 Movements
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re-membering1 movements trade union movements & new social movements in neo-liberal mauritius2 prishani naidoo & ahmed veriava [email protected] [email protected] 1 For a full account of our use of this term and the methodology behind this project, please consult annex 1. 2 This is part of the product of a bigger research project in Mauritius and South Africa, facilitated by the Centre for Civil Society, University of Natal-Durban. For a full report covering both countries, consult www.red.org.za introduction We’ve just started getting our first briefing from Lindsey and Dani at the Ledikasyon Pu Travayer (LPT) offices when the telephone rings. A few minutes later Georges bursts in, a flurry of Creole spewing forth. Would we mind continuing our meeting with Lindsey as Dani is going to accompany Georges to Pamplemousses where workers have just returned to work from tea and been told that the factory is closed and they no longer have jobs? Not at all, we say, but can’t we go with to Pamplemousses? No questions asked, we hop in a taxi with Georges and Dani on our way to Pamplemousses, which we’ve only seen beautiful pictures of in tour guides advertising the island’s famous botanical gardens. Arriving at an old building serving as the labour and pension office, we meet the faces of mainly young and old women sitting in rows waiting to lay their statements of complaint against George Sham, their employer until this morning, who has miraculously disappeared from Mauritius with no prior warning of the factory’s closure nor payment of their outstanding wages. Uncertainty, worry, despair… how do we approach them? Georges seems to know some of the workers – this is his village – and makes the first move. Soon we’re hearing stories from all sides. In broken English and Creole workers tell us how they’ve been left stranded without money, without jobs and without any knowledge of where their food for the next day is going to come. They don’t belong to a union. Old women with husbands and children afraid that they won’t be able to find other work as employers prefer people younger than 40 these days, young girls who look like they should be at school… What do we think they should do? Some want to start looking for alternative work immediately. Others want to find out what Georges and Dani can do. Some want to go home and start making arrangements for Maha Shivaratri3 Are there only women in this factory? No, but mainly women. We find out that the foreman (a man) is around and still has the keys to the factory. Another man hangs around on the outskirts. He’s not going to hang around here. He has to find work today because his family needs to eat. He leaves. It’s suggested that everyone returns to the factory, that the foreman re-opens the factory and that all workers meet later today. Someone says that this is only 1 of 3 of George Sham’s factories that have closed today. Georges should assist to make contact with the other workers in the factories which are in other places on the island. It’s agreed and we all leave to the factory. The factory is really a sweatshop – loose hanging wires, poor ventilation, leaking toilets, poor lighting and seats which cannot be conducive to long hours of sewing. We look around quickly and leave to sit outside with Georges and Dani as we could be arrested for being on a 3 We were in Mauritius for the period of the Hindu festival, Mahashivaratri, three days during which the entire island is swept up in celebrations in praise of Lord Shiva, the Hindu deity symbolising creation. The majority of the Mauritian population is of Indian origin and of the Hindu faith. For these 3 days and a few before and after, you can go nowhere on the island without seeing colourful chariots being carried by groups of people dressed in white making their pilgrimage to the sacred site in Beau Bassin, where most of the celebrations happen. Television programmes are dedicated to the celebrations, clubs and village associations hang up banners wishing Hindus well in their prayers, and even McDonalds in Port Louis had a banner that could not be missed, giving their good wishes to Hindus!! 2 worksite organising unofficially. Silently we’re glad that we’re out here where the heat is a little more bearable than inside the sweatshop… The meeting begins, everyone huddled close together outside the sweatshop. There is general agreement that the factory should be kept open and that there should be workers in the factory all night. Older women raise concerns that preparations for Shivaratri will be disturbed; what will their husbands say if they’re not at home all night? what about their families’ needs? It’s agreed that workers will organise themselves in groups and occupy the factory in shifts. Workers will also immediately go out into the village to let people know of the factory occupation, to explain the problem, and to get support from the community and husbands in particular. Georges and Dani will help to contact the media and will get in touch with a trade union working in the sector. They will also make contact with workers in the other factories. We take notes. The meeting ends and workers disperse into the community… we notice reels of cotton hidden under the arms of some of them as they leave for home. (24/2/2003). The Company Gardens have been taken over by red, black and white banners and posters publicizing the hunger strike of the White Sands drivers who are now on the 8th day of their action against unfair sackings. A makeshift shelter stands at the 1 entrance, radio blasting from inside. We make our way in – it’s hot and though the levels of energy amongst the men and few women who lie and sit on the many mattresses laid down seem sapped, there’s a low buzz of conversations on cellphones and with each other, interrupted every now and then by the radio, whose volume is turned up everytime the strike is mentioned. Dani knows people here. She introduces us to the 2 union negotiators as South Africans and Ahmed explains why we’re here. We’re a bit uneasy to tire them some more with our questions. They look really exhausted and have been giving interviews all day but oblige us anyway, really happy to hear that we’re from South Africa. They tell us about White Sands Tours, a sub-company of a bigger tour operator called Island Drive Tours, whose drivers they represent. Since June last year they have been in negotiations with the company about the working conditions of the drivers. While in negotiations, the company imposed changes in conditions that were subject to these negotiations but were not in line with agreements. From 1 December 2002, a decision was taken to reduce salaries by between Rs5000 and Rs10 000 and this was effected in the salary cheques received in January without giving workers any prior warning. On 30 January workers went to the employer to demand an explanation. He called a meeting at which he told workers that they would be dismissed if they didn’t agree with the cuts. He suspended 57 workers on the spot. Every worker was called before a disciplinary committee. After this, he sacked 39 workers without any compensation, even though he acknowledged that he was at fault for not informing them of the cuts. He does not want to recognise the union and he does not want to negotiate because he says workers went on strike while negotiating. Since the 6 August the drivers have been on hunger strike here, together with the 2 union negotiators and the wife of one of the drivers. But, not all the drivers have been on strike – of the 63 drivers at White Sands, 3 were not union members and of the 57 workers who voted for the strike, 5 left the union and went back to the employer to apologise, and 13 were reintegrated into the workforce after the disciplinary hearings. Since this morning, the Minister of Labour and the 3 Acting Prime Minister, Paul Berenger, have intervened and right now another negotiator, Mr Jack Bizlall, is in negotiations with the employer because he won’t recognise the union. They also tell us of how the law has failed workers and how they have done all at their means to try to get redress. And, of how politicians play a ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde role’ with unions, and how there would have been no intervention from the Ministers had they not gone on strike and had the other trade union federations not supported them. They speak of the tremendous support they’ve received from all trade unions and trade union federations in Mauritius and are excited about a rally that will happen tomorrow, in which all the trade unions and federations would be participating in a solidarity front for them. They ask about our struggles in South Africa, we thank them, wish them strength in their struggle, and make our way back to the LPT office. (26/02/2003). These 2 accounts of times during our short stay in Mauritius bear evidence of the failure of the law and the traditional trade union form to effectively address the needs of workers in the new sectors of work under neoliberalism.