Secondly, the so called "Agoa girls" should have been educated to the fact that we are in a global economy right now, which means that if the factory can't work in Uganda it will work in China, if not China, then India, if not India then Bangladesh. That means that even though they have a right to protest and contest the conditions of work, they ought to have done it in a more CIVILIZED MANNER, so that they win both ways, in other words they get to keep their jobs and also have conditions of work improved. Right now they have lost completely, because they have no jobs, so they are far worse off than where they were before. Plus the company maybe moved to some other destination, luckly in Uganda or unluckly to some other country. Besides they also had the option of resigning, to me their actions were rather selfish because they may have closed oportunities for others. The action of the police was very right, the moment they barrackeded themselves in the building and threatened to set it ablaze, they had fallen afoul of the law and left the police with little choice than to forcefully evict them.
Thirdly, those of you that are shouting about "SLAVERY" are working under far worse conditions in BRITAIN, GERMANY, SPAIN, DUBAI, AMERICA, etc and not complaining. Who is worse off, at least the "Agoa girls" are in there country unlike those of you who are "REALY SLAVES" in foreign countries. At least they are not cleaning toilets, and prostituting all over the world and then coming home to decieve their relatives that they are big shots. How true are the late Bob Marley's lyrics "emancipate yourselves from mental slavery", in other words it is ok to go to BRITAIN or DEBAI AND BE SUBJECTED TO SLAVE LIKE CONDITIONS OF WORK, BECAUSE YOU ARE DOING IT FOR "BAZUNGU" BUT WHEN YOU ARE IN YOUR OWN COUNTRY IN A HONEST JOB, BUT EARNING LOW PAY, YOU ARE A SLAVE. MAY GOD SAVE US FROM OURSELVES, AMEN.
From: "Chris Opoka-Okumu" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> CC: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: ugnet_: The failure of AGOA in Museveni's Uganda Date: Thu, 23 Oct 2003 00:16:41 -0400
This indeed is the much vaunted "modernization and transformation"!!! Phew!!! Obote is right. This government is bankrupt of ideas of governace and management of the economy. They can only survive on plagiarization and since there was no AGOA in the 1980s, there was nothing to pliagiarize. Hence their bankruptcy of ideas on the much hyped AGOA. Read on. Katumba Wamala abuses the office of IG of Policer to intervene on purely contracual matterrs outside jurisdiction of police in private relations. AGOA indeed!! My foot.
COO
Agoa girls sacked By Simon Kasyate & Lominda Afedraru Oct 23, 2003
** Police boss Wamala ends strike ** They survived on doughnuts and water
KAMPALA - More than 1,000 young women who were on strike at a local textile factory have been fired.
The firm, which produces and exports textiles to the United States under the African Growth and Opportunity Act, Agoa, has also been closed temporarily.
The employees, believed to be more than 1,000, and popularly known as Agoa girls, were sacked following a two-day strike at the Apparel Tri-Star factory in Bugolobi, Kampala.
The head of the company, Mr V. Kananathan, wrote to Dr David Ogaram, the commissioner for labour in the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development, yesterday confirming the sacking.
"In light of the [strike], we have been forced to take a very painful decision, which is to terminate the services of all our production staff summarily due to unbecoming conduct," the official wrote in his letter.
Kananathan said the strike had disrupted the operations of the company, leading to "irreparable damage" to its reputation and operations.
The letter also announced the temporary closure of the factory. "In view of the recent strike undertaken by our employees, we have decided to temporarily close down the factory," Kananathan wrote.
The official, who was not available for comment, said the girls would be paid all their outstanding arrears as of Monday.
Strike ends
The sacking of the girls came after Inspector General of Police Katumba Wamala ended the strike yesterday.
The girls had been protesting low pay, poor working conditions and reports that some of them were about to be sacked.
They also said that they were being forced to share a dormitory and toilet facilities with males.
On Tuesday morning, the girls barricaded themselves inside the dormitory and refused to come out, despite appeals from management and police. Then Maj. Gen. Wamala turned up at around midday yesterday with a truckload of anti-riot cops. For close to an hour, he urged the girls to call off the strike.
Some of them told The Monitor that when they refused to open, Wamala ordered his squad to storm.
The police boss reportedly had asked the girls to end the strike while he brokers a meeting between them and the management of Tri-Star, which is run with government support.
That meeting had been scheduled for Saturday and the girls had threatened to burn the factory if the decision made did not go their way.
The Tri-Star management has refused to comment on the strike since it began.
The police chief did not speak to reporters as he drove out of the factory premises.
About 1,400 girls spent more than 24 hours inside the dormitory before the strike ended.
After the locks to the dorm were broken yesterday, several girls emerged looking hungry and haggard and dashed to nearby shops to grab a bite.
Some of the girls, who spoke to The Monitor on condition of anonymity, said they had survived on doughnuts and water from a fire hose.
� 2003 The Monitor Publications
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
East African | About Us | Feedback | Site Map | License | Monitor Mail
_________________________________________________________________
STOP MORE SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail
-------------------------------------------- This service is hosted on the Infocom network http://www.infocom.co.ug
