A nationwide protest took place in South Africa at the weekend, with clothing and textile workers protesting against large brands like H&M and Zara not selling products made in the country.
The 4 November protest, organised by the Southern African Clothing & Textile Workers’ Union (SACTWU), affiliated to the IndustriAll global union, was to highlight the industry’s wave of job losses and factory closures in the country over the last two years.
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According to SACTWU, a key reason for this is the entry and growth of large international retailers like Zara and Hennes & Mauritz (H&M), selling no products made in South Africa. The protests took place at stores of the two retailers across the country to highlight “the damage that is being caused to our domestic clothing industry”, the union said in a statement.
“These foreign retailers cause fewer orders in South African factories, which contribute to local retrenchments and factory closures,” the union said.
SACTWU has called on the Swedish and Spanish retailers to procure locally manufactured products and have offered them assistance in sourcing quality local suppliers.
IndustriAll assistant general secretary, Jenny Holdcroft, says: “Multinational companies have a responsibility to make sure their global commerce does not negatively impact on workers. Supporting local manufacturing is part of that responsibility and we urge H&M and Inditex to enter into discussions with SACTWU on how they can source local products for their stores.”
