The Congress of South African Trade Unions welcomes the decision of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Economic Development to hold hearings into the Massmart/Walmart takeover deal, which start today.
COSATU's team at the hearing will be headed by its President, Sidumo Dlamini, on Wednesday 20 July 2011.
COSATU, its affiliates and other concerned South Africans remain convinced that Walmart's takeover is not in the best interests of this country and will continue to oppose the deal.
Under the Competition Act, the Competition Tribunal must consider the competition and public interest effects of a proposed merger, and not just the narrow interests of the firms who intend to merge. In its ruling on the Walmart/Massmart merger, we believe it ignored the wider interests of the workers in both Massmart and other retailers, South African manufacturers and the country as a whole.
Given Walmart's size and notorious business practices around the world, the Tribunal should have weighed the supposed value of Walmart's investment in South Africa against its foreseeable adverse impact on jobs and conditions, in both the retail sector and in manufacturing and other sectors that feed into the supply chain to Massmart such as agriculture, agro-processing, chemicals, clothing and textiles.
UNI Global Union, representing 20 million workers in the retail sector worldwide, has documented that Walmart has a strong anti-union attitude and a ruthless approach to keeping down wages. Its induction training devotes as much time telling workers how bad unions are as on training them on health and safety. Where workers do get organised, as in the US and Canada, it simply closes down the store or department.