The demands

1. A Living Wage.  What is a job if it doesn’t provide a living?  Increase workers’ wages and end injustice.

2. Training Workers in their Rights. An informed worker is a responsible worker; to herself, her colleagues and her employer.  Train workers in their rights.

3. Women’s voices in trade unions. We must have a system of mature industrial relations in which women are leaders and can raise their voices.

4. Health & Safety Policies. No-one should suffer physical harm at work: OHS guidelines should be followed to protect all workers

5. An End to Sexual Harassment. Sexual harassment must end now on these farms!  Train your workers, your supervisors and your managers.  Get policies working and stand behind them.  Workers are your sisters and brothers treat them accordingly.

6. Flowers shouldn’t cost the earth. Work hard to eliminate the damage you are doing to our land and our planet.

1st

A Living Wage

What is a job if it doesn’t provide a living?  Increase workers’ wages and end injustice.

Workers must earn a LIVING wage from their work.  Our research shows that the differential between minimum/actual and calculated living wages being paid to workers is far too large.  All stakeholders must engage in programmes to begin the implementation of a living wage across all farms in the sector.

A Case Study from Tanzania:

How she spends her wage in a month

Name Withheld, age 28 years, female, not married, 2 children (aged 3 and 6), education level - Standard VII, 6 years in employment, grower, employed on monthly contract, member of TPAWU, salary 66,000/= per month.

The rest is deductions and contributions. The respondent said she do not remain with savings after paying for the mentioned costs. Said she cannot afford to send her child to good school due to low income.

2nd

Training Workers in their Rights

An informed worker is a responsible worker; to herself, her colleagues and her employer.  Train workers in their rights.

Workers must be aware of their rights through a continual process of training and awareness raising in the workplace.

A Case study from Ethiopia

After the training in Adama, one of the women trainees gave us the following testimony:

“I am really impressed with the teachings I received during these three days. I appreciate the level of consideration given to the existing issues in farms and the effort made to train us on these issues which will make us one step closer to solving the problems we have in our work place.

I am 39 years old and I grew up in plantations my whole life and so did my family. But I have never heard of or witnessed such training in my life before. Nobody was concerned about raising our level of awareness on these issues before. But today I am really happy to be part of this training and I ask you not to stop here. I would love to have other such trainings in the future, thank you for everything.”

(Testimony from last Ethiopian report to WWW)

3rd

Women's Voices in Trades Unions

We must have a system of mature industrial relations in which women are leaders and can raise their voices.

Mature industrial relations are essential for improving labour standards across the sector.  Freedom of association must be encouraged on all farms both in terms of membership and active union participation and also in negotiating better terms in Collective Bargaining Agreements.

Hannah Mwesigwa was working with (Farm name withheld) as a green house supervisor where she was managing over 15 workers. In the year 2008 Hannah was selected to attend A Training of Trainers Course under the UWEA Workers training programme.

After the training Hannah was elected as the Branch Secretary for her Union Branch and later selected to attend a Global Horticultural Workers and Environmental Rights Network Meeting in Arusha Tanzania. Hannah’s ordeal with management of her farm began when she became a union leader. After coming back from Tanzania Hannah was demoted and is now working as a general worker. However Hannah has continued working happily in her new job and is doing her union work very well. Management is now perturbed and do not know what action to take against Hannah because they have failed to frustrate her efforts.

At the time of Hannah’s demotion majority of union members threatened to withdraw from the union thinking that they too might follow suit like Hannah. Hannah worked hard as a leader to calm them down and advised them that it was wrong for them to withdraw from the union as such action would jeopardise their employment situation at the farm. The members listened to Hannah’s advice and remained in the union. However most of the union leaders withdrew from leadership but remained members of the union. Hannah and the Chief Shop steward are the only union leaders now at the farm although arrangements are being made to fill the gap soon.

“Some Union members were dismissed from work on various reasons and we knew this was management’s underhand method to frustrate the Union”, said Hannah.

During this same time amidst all these acts against the union, Hannah was asked by management through her line manager to leave the union so that they could sponsor her further studies and also have her salary increased. Hannah refused their seductive offers and remained happily working for the union and as a general worker. She hopes that management will one day realise how useful the union is and the union will help her settle the case at an opportune time.

4th

Health & Safety Policies

No-one should suffer physical harm at work: OHS guidelines should be followed to protect all workers.

Workers must never suffer any negative physical or mental impacts as a result of their work. All forms of injury must be prevented through the proper provision of PPE to all at-risk workers, observance of re-entry periods, proper handling of chemicals and pesticides, designation of eating areas away from working areas, awareness raising amongst workers, provision of medical facilities and trained first aiders, regular medical checks for all staff from the commencement of work etc.

A Case study from Uganda

My name is Mary Wanyenya.  I am a general worker working in flower beds at X Flower Farm (name removed.) I have worked there in Yellow (green house) for three years now as a harvester. We do not have protective gear for the last 3 years now. Right from the day I started working there, I have never been given gloves, I don’t have an overall and not even gumboots. I work for 2000 shillings per day. Every two weeks I get thirty thousand (30,000) shillings.

I’m affected by chemicals simply because sometimes they spray the flowers in the morning at eight o’clock (8.00am) and after one or two hours we are forced to go back to the green house to harvest flowers. The way we harvest flowers is this – you harvest the flowers with one hand and the other arm is to hold the flowers, with no protective clothing at all. Look at my arms, they are now rough and black because of chemicals.

Sometimes they spray flowers at 6.00pm or 7.00pm in the evening and they come back to re spray in the morning, but before the chemical dries up we are forced to go and harvest flowers.

Even if they request us to use protective gear, the employer does not want.

5th

An End to Sexual Harassment

Sexual harassment must end now on these farms!  Train your workers, your supervisors and your managers.  Get policies working and stand behind them.  Workers are your sisters and brothers treat them accordingly.

The needs of women must be properly addressed including: Elimination of sexual harassment on farms including awareness raising and policy enforcement.  Permissive attitudes and ignorance towards this issue has led to intolerable levels of sexual harassment on many farms.  This needs to be tackled now.

A Case Study from Tanzania

The young woman X, engaged as a grower in a cut flower farm faced sexual harassment by a male supervisor Z. X was working at the same company with her fiancée.

What happened?

The harasser Z was asking sexual favours from X several times on promise of promoting X for a position of supervisor, but X was not ready for that. Z used another strategy, and that was to use a female supervisor Y in the same section where X work. Y convinced X to escort her to town. X was also accompanied by W to go to town.

When they reached in town X, Y and W entered a restaurant and took a drink. After some minutes Z  joined them. After few minutes Y left the place even before finishing her drink she said she may come back. At the restaurant she left X, W and Z. Y did not come back until 1.00pm and the time before Z tried all his efforts to ask for sexual favours from X.

X was bitter to W complaining as to why they have brought her to town for that! She told them that because they have remained in town for a long time until late hours, she said ‘’ I am going to report this to my fiancée and also report the issue to TPAWU branch committee.

At 7.00pm X and W left back home and arrived at 2.00 pm. Z had transport but he left them in town.  On the next day X went to report to the Women Workers Committee (at branch), and she was advised to put it in writing. The women’s committee presented the matter to TPAWU branch committee and a meeting with management was called to discuss the matter. The outcome of the meeting was termination of employment of Z.

6th

Flowers shouldn't cost the Earth

Work hard to eliminate the damage you are doing to our land and our planet

The labour movement is mainstreaming local environmental issues, we have built our understanding of the issues and know how to monitor negative impacts on local environments.  Work to eliminate any negative impact of your farm on local communities by using less water, disposing of waste properly and finding less damaging pest control methods.

Information from Ethiopia

Generally, it is found that companies have no precautionary administrative interventions to mitigate the possible public health and environmental effects of the cut flower wastes. Apparently, despite recent deaths of cattle due to feeding of cut flower green-wastes in one of the research areas, still the community is feeding its cattle the same green-waste reluctantly guarded landfill. Moreover, the liquid run-off in to water bodies particularly to Lake Zeway seems to be not recognized by farms or any other  stakeholder.

(Ethiopian research report)