For your information the use of cheap labour by developing countries to produce goods and services is not just starting in Uganda infact this same philosophy has been the foundation and/or spring board for emerging economic powers such as China, Taiwan, Korea, Brazil, India, Pakistan etc. If you are suggesting that Uganda should reject all such opportunities because it is "slavery" then you are stupidier than the message in your postings. I just pray that it is only us Ugandans that are exposed to the foolishness you are posting (at least we are family and can bare the shame) otherwise you are disgracing all Ugandans....I MEAN.., YOU ARE COMPLETELY IGNORANT OF WORLD ECONOMIC TRENDS, A COUNTRY LIKE UGANDA DOES NOT HAVE THE LUXURY OF ARROGANTLY DICTATING TO INVESTORS, THAT ALL HER WORKERS SHOULD BE PAID US$100PERDAY, WHEN COUNTRIES LIKE CHINA ARE LINING UP(AND LOBBYING HARD) TO DO THE SAME JOBS THESE "AGOA GIRLS" HAD FOR MUCH LESS. REMEMBER THAT THESE JOBS WERE ALREADY TAKEN UP BY OTHER COUNTRIES AND IT WAS AS A RESULT OF DIPLOMACY AND PRESSURE FROM THIRD WORLD COUNTRIES (IN WHICH PRESIDENT MUSEVENI PLAYED A PIVOTAL ROLE) THAT CONCESSIONS WERE MADE TO ALLOW SOME OF THESE JOBS TO COME TO AFRICA, THROUGH AGOA. SO IT IS NOT AS IF THE JOBS CAME TO UGANDA BECAUSE UGANDA IS SO SPECIAL AND THE JOBS CAN'T BE DONE ANYWHERE ELSE.
President Museven has no blame whatsoever in this. The blame falls squarely on the so called "Agoa girls", had they done what they did, in developed countries such as Britain, US, or Canada, many (if not all of them) would be in prison today. The Ugandan authorities have been TOO LINIENT WITH THEM AND YOU ON THIS MEDIUM WHO LIVE IN DEVELOPED COUNTRIES KNOW WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT. PUBLIC DISORDER, THREATENING ARSON AND RESISTING ARREST ETC...COME ON.
No body is saying that the "Agoa girls" had no right to ask for improvements in their conditions of service the issue here is the way they did it. There are procedures for negotiating with employers, Mr. Opoka for your information Uganda also has labour laws and the Agoa girls should have gone about this the proper way. Even if they had finally decided to strike to show their dissatisfaction, they ought to still have gone about the right way.
Finaly the reason why America and other industrialized countries out-source labour, in the first place, is because it is CHEAP otherwise they wouldn't bother. SO THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH BEING NICE AND KIND TO ANYBODY, IT HAS TO DO WITH ECONOMICS AND ANYTHING THAT HAS TO DO WITH MONEY....TRUST ME IT IS ALWAYS CUT THROAT. BOTTOM LINE, THIRD WORLD NEEDS THE "JOBS AND THE LITTLE MONEY", AMERICA NEEDS THE "CHEAP LABOUR IN ORDER TO MAKE BIG MONEY" (DON'T FORGET THAT AMERICANS WANT THE JOBS TOO BUT THEY ARE TOO EXPENSIVE) SO ON EITHER SIDE OF THE BARGAINING TABLE, TRADEOFFS HAVE TO BE MADE, BUT THERE IS A SAYING THAT "HE WHO PAYS THE PIPER DICTATES THE TUNE" MR. OPOKA YOU FIGURE THAT OUT (I HOPE YOU CAN).
From: "Chris Opoka-Okumu" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: "Clement Okurut" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
CC: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: ugnet_: Re: AGOA girls sleep at Parliament
Date: Fri, 24 Oct 2003 08:44:32 -0400
Jack & Okurut,
The AGOA thing is proving as half baked and not well thought as the UPE, as half baked and not well thought out as the bankrupt the barter trade ideas . The so called "modernizing and transforming" President is modernizing slavery and transforming the art of prostration before the West. Notice how mere AGOA managers have dismissed the Ministers concerned and can only deal with the President. Notice how the police is being abused and used as attack dogs to intimidate Uganda citizens in purely civil matters and to shelter private foreign investors from legal labour action.
COO .
----- Original Message -----
From: Clement Okurut
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ; [EMAIL PROTECTED] ; [EMAIL PROTECTED] ; [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Friday, October 24, 2003 12:52 AM
Subject: Re: AGOA girls sleep at Parliament
Jack:
Under normal circmstances, the North American markets are sensitive to abuse of labourers. The blue eyed (favorite son of the wazungu) might escape the wrath of the consumers in the short-term, but their sins might catch up with them in the long-run.
Ok. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~>
>"Kananathan was unavailable for comment, as was Bitangaro. Ms Mary Okurut, the presidential spokeswoman, said State House has been too busy making preparations for the on-going Inter-Governmental Authority on Development summit to think about the Agoa crisis.
>
>"I can't talk about that now, we are having visiting Presidents so it is a bad time," she said.
>
>
>
>Eh a little spin like 'It is a god time to bury bad news" could do!
>JSA
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Chris Opoka-Okumu
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ; [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Sent: Friday, October 24, 2003 2:14 AM
> Subject: AGOA girls sleep at Parliament
>
>
> The Monitor
> October 24, 2003
> Agoa girls sleep at Parliament
> By Our Reporters
> Oct 24, 2003
>
>
> ** Tri-Star shuts out ministers
> ** High Court stops sackings
>
> KAMPALA - More than 200 female workers at a local textile firm who were sacked on Wednesday spent the night at Parliament yesterday, and vowed not to leave until their problems are solved.
>
> The young women (popularly referred to as Agoa girls), who spoke to The Monitor by phone, said they were going to sleep on chairs in the TV room in Parliament buildings.
>
> MPs were by press time organising food for the girls and a place to bathe.
> The girls went on strike on Monday, protesting low pay and poor working conditions, before barricading themselves inside their dormitories the following day.
>
> The strike was ended on Tuesday afternoon after anti-riot police led by the Inspector General of Police, Maj. Gen. Katumba Wamala, broke into the dormitories.
>
> However, a meeting between the management of the textile firm, Apparels Tri-Star, and labour officials fell through before the textile bosses announced that they were sacking all their production staff.
>
> The company employs more than 1,000 girls. A law firm working for the workers successfully applied for a court injunction yesterday stopping the dismissals.
> Justice Okumu Wengi of the High Court issued the injunction.
>
> It followed an application filed by one of the girls, Ms Zauja Biryeri, as well as Uganda Textile, Garments, Leather & Allied Workers Union together with the National Organisation of Trade Unions, Notu.
>
> The application was lodged through Barya, Byamugisha & Co. Advocates. The order restrains the company from sacking the girls without paying all their dues, benefits and repatriation costs.
>
> It also stops the sackings until a separate civil suit filed yesterday by the girls against the company is disposed of.
>
> In the civil suit, the girls want to be paid, among others, overtime allowances which they say accrues from working 13, instead of the legally accepted 8-hour days.
>
> However, policemen deployed at the Tri-Star factory in Bugolobi, Kampala, stopped Workers MP Bruno Pajobo from delivering the injunction to the Tri-Star boss, Mr V. Kananathan.
>
> Efforts by several senior government officials to speak to the Tri-Star management were in vain.
>
> Mr Sam Bitangaro, the state minister for Gender, Labour and Social Development, tried unsuccessfully to speak to Kananathan. Government officials who declined to be named in this report said the matter was passed on to Prime Minister Apolo Nsibambi, but that he, too, had failed to resolve the impasse - with the textile managers reportedly claiming that they would only speak to President Yoweri Museveni, who helped them set up shop.
>
> Kananathan was unavailable for comment, as was Bitangaro. Ms Mary Okurut, the presidential spokeswoman, said State House has been too busy making preparations for the on-going Inter-Governmental Authority on Development summit to think about the Agoa crisis.
>
> "I can't talk about that now, we are having visiting Presidents so it is a bad time," she said.
>
> When the girls realised that they were not going to be let back into the factory, they marched to Parliament in the afternoon and camped in the gardens.
>
> Matembe speaks
>
> They were met there by another Workers MP, Mr Martin Wandera - with many of them either sobbing or wiping tears.
>
> Wandera told the girls to remain calm while they tried to solve the matter with the Labour ministry.
>
> Shortly after, outspoken women rights activist and former minister of Ethics and Integrity, Ms Miria Matembe, arrived and advised the girls to seek audience with either the President's Office or those who recruited them.
>
> "There must be a better way of sending you away; do they expect you to go sell yourselves on the streets?" Matembe said. "Go back to the factory and only leave on instructions of the President like you came."
>
> Mr Aggrey Awori, the MP for Samia Bugwe North, who also spoke to the girls, told them where to vent their anger.
>
> "Do you know your President?" he asked. "Yes," they chorused.
>
> "Then where does he work?" he added, drawing murmurs from the girls.
>
> "Do you see that building?" he asked, pointing to one of the wings of Parliament, where Mr Museveni has an office. "Yes," they chorused again.
>
> "That's where he works; go there and ask him why he brought you."
> By press time last night, the girls were still camped at Parliament and had vowed not to leave.
>
> MP Pajobo told The Monitor last evening that he, and his colleagues, would camp with the girls throughout the night.
>
> Officials comment
>
> Two senior officials on Agoa were divided over the way forward in the matter.
> The Presidential Assistant on Agoa, Ms Susan Muhwezi, who revealed that Tri-Star has been receiving about $200,000 (Shs 400 million) a week from its exports, said the girls were free to go.
>
> "We gave them the skills and it's a free market; they can walk out and go elsewhere if they are not satisfied," she said.
>
> But the Senior Presidential Adviser on Agoa, Mr Onegi Obel, warned that Tri-Star would be punished if investigations find the firm at fault. "What I see today with the strikes is a case of poor management of human resource," he said.
> He promised to do everything within his means to ensure that the girls are reinstated and their grievances settled.
>
> Reported by Simon Kasyate,
> Lominda Afedraru, Alex B. Atuhaire & Henry Ssali
>
>
>
>
> � 2003 The Monitor Publications
>
>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
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