Workers’ rights “progress” thanks to World Cup

World Cup workers in Durban have protested against labour conditions Keystone

The football World Cup has helped significantly improve South African workers’ rights, a Swiss union activist tells swissinfo.ch.

Vasco Pedrina, who has been working closely with construction unions in South Africa, says the ongoing labour protests by World Cup stewards and stadium staff are the reflection of the vitality of the country’s worker movements.

Pedrina is vice-president of the Building and Wood Workers’ International union and secretary of Switzerland’s largest trade union, Unia.

Since the start of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, hundreds of privately hired security stewards have gone on strike at five of the ten stadiums over low wages.

swissinfo.ch: Could the daily demonstrations around the stadiums in South Africa spread?

Vasco Pedrina: Stewards are demonstrating over salary promises and work conditions which have not been respected. These are legitimate demands. The service sector doesn’t benefit from a collective work agreement or the progress seen recently in other sectors. In my experience of South Africa, the conflicts can spread quickly, as there are major hidden frustrations among the population.

Unions are very popular in South Africa. The tradition of union battles has its origins in the apartheid struggles. Unions have experienced representatives in firms and a powerful network, which regularly enables workers to express their demands at the national level. South African legislation is much more favourable to unions than in Switzerland.

swissinfo.ch: Has the World Cup led to an improvement in workers’ rights?

V.P.: The South African government invested over SFr4 billion in the building and renovation of stadiums. A new high-speed train line was also built between Pretoria and Johannesburg. This represented an ideal opportunity to demand decent work conditions for South Africa’s workers.

The “Fair Games – Fair Play” campaign that we carried out during the World Cup preparations was very successful. Wages in the construction sector rose by 30 per cent in three years. Huge progress was also made in terms of health and safety at the work place.

Good collaboration between unions from developed and developing countries was key to this success. South Africa’s unions are able to call upon many supporters. We helped them financially and enabled them to develop contacts with Fifa. International agreements were signed with multinational firms involved in building stadiums. In the end, the stadiums were built under good conditions for a country like South Africa.

swissinfo.ch: But the Swiss Labour Assistance organisation (OSEO), of whom you are a member, has just presented Fifa and its president, Sepp Blatter, with a yellow card. Why this double-speak?

V.P.: We gave Fifa a yellow card and not a red one. Certain promises have not been kept and collaboration was not always easy. Fifa’s talk about social progress via football is not always in tune with reality. With its financial and political power, Fifa could have made a greater contribution towards raising the population’s living standards. In the pre-construction phase, residents were forcibly displaced. Other abuses were registered.

I see the glass as half-empty. Progress has been possible compared with previous world cups. This is the first time Fifa has opened its building site doors to international union organisations. Collaboration is much tougher with Uefa regarding Euro 2012 in Poland and Ukraine.

At the union level the results are beyond our expectations. Over 25,000 construction workers joined unions in only three and a half years. Thanks to the World Cup the construction unions have grown in importance, while they were traditionally in the shadow of the powerful mining unions.

Through their SFr50,000 annual contribution, charities and unions from developed countries carried out very effective development aid work. We were also able to share our expertise in areas like negotiation and integration of immigrant workers.

swissinfo.ch: What will happen to the construction workers who helped build the stadiums and infrastructure after the tournament?

V.P.: This is obviously one of the problems. Unfortunately, the end of the construction work coincides with a global economic crisis, which has had very bad consequences for South Africa. But thanks to union support on the building sites, some workers benefited from professional training.

But we are aware that wages are still not enough for a decent life in South Africa. Nonetheless, if you compare construction with other sectors like agriculture or industry, their situation has improved considerably.

swissinfo.ch: Are you planning to continue your campaigns for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil?

V.P.: This first experience has shown that international solidarity pays dividends. Collaboration between unions in developed and developing nations will obviously continue. Our Brazilian colleagues requested our help to set up a similar operation.

President Lula has also demonstrated openness to cooperation so that the World Cup in Brazil becomes a tool for social progress. In Brazil there are five million construction workers. It will be a victory if, like in South Africa, we manage to improve working conditions on the World Cup sites and then impose them across the sector.

Samuel Jaberg, swissinfo.ch (Translated from French by Simon Bradley)

Context

The “Fair Games – Fair Play” campaign was launched in 2007 at the World Social Forum in Nairobi by the Building and Wood Workers’ International organisation and South African unions. It is part of a global union-NGO campaign entitled “Decent Work for a Decent Life”.

The aim of this action between unions from developed and developing nations was to try and enforce working conditions, health and safety standards and hygiene on World Cup building sites and to strengthen construction unions in South Africa.

Between 2007-2009, the minimum monthly wage for construction workers on the stadiums went from 2,200 to 3,000 rand (SFr430). After construction sector strike action in July 2009, these pay conditions were later applied to the whole sector, But unions say 4,500 rand (SFr640) is needed to meet basic needs.

In Switzerland the Swiss Federation of Trade Unions, the interprofessional trade union, Unia, and the Swiss Labour Assistance, lobbied Fifa, enabling the first-ever inspection visits to World Cup stadiums in South Africa. Fifa also agreed to abide by the objectives of the “Decent Work for a Decent Life” campaign.