Date of publication: February 4, 2009

Source: New York Teacher

» http://www.nysut.org/cps/rde/xchg/nysut/hs.xsl/newyorkteacher_12050.htm

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Since Valentine's Day is about declaring love, it can be an opportunity for teachers to talk about the larger love found in social justice and human rights. It all stems from flowers.

About one-third of Ecuador's and Colombia's flowers are produced for Valentine's Day alone, which means workers are pushed to meet production quotas, logging up to 20 hours a day, at 250-300 stems per hour for harvesters, according to the International Labor Rights Forum. Because flowers are not consumed, safety standards are lower than they are for food.

"Flowers use far more pesticides than other crops," said Eva Seidelman, program assistant for the labor forum. Three of the pesticides used in Ecuador and Colombia are banned by the World Health Organization, she said.

Oxfam, the international organization that seeks solutions to poverty and injustice, reports more than 30 different kinds of pesticides were used as of 2004 to produce the velvety, posh petals people have come to expect from bouquets of roses.

"They're supposed to be perfect. No one wants a rose with a little brown spot," Seidelman said."Sixty-five percent of the workers in Colombia are women, and pesticides disproportionately affect women. There's far more birth defects."

Child labor remains a problem in Ecuador, she added.

Workers also face retaliation for attempting to form unions to improve pay and working conditions.

NYSUT Secretary-Treasurer Lee Cutler, who oversees social justice issues for the union, encourages teachers to use lesson plans provided by the International Labor Rights Forum to make students aware of the abuse of workers. Go to http://www.laborrights.org/; click on "sweatfree world" then "fairness in flowers."

Other actions that can be taken include talking to florists and supermarket flower managers.

"We encourage people to just ask where the flowers come from," said Cutler. This will raise awareness, and hopefully, create a demand for action that workers be treated fairly.

An informational flier that can be given to florists is also available on the labor rights Web site, or students can write to their local flower sellers asking them to investigate where their flowers are produced.

Wholesalers don't think people care about labor standards and human rights," Cutler said.

Reframing Valentine's Day as International Day of Flower Workers, the labor forum is seeking a living wage, safer working conditions, freedom for workers to join unions and more training in how to use pesticides.

What you can do

Here are things you and your students can do to raise awareness:

• For high school and college students, a television interview with a Dole flower plantation union leader at www.youtube.com/watch?v=0U5_EeXginA explains the problems shared by the 90,000 flower workers in Colombia. The movie Maria Full of Grace shows the consequences of choices a young girl makes when she cannot earn enough money working in the flower plantations.

• Students can write letters to the editor using information from the labor rights organization's fact sheets on the Web. They can also respond to calls for "urgent action."

• For grades K-12, a flower campaign tool kit can be found on the Labor Rights home page; click on "Lesson Plan" under "Valentine's Day in the classroom." Other lesson plans provide information about working conditions, pesticides and labor rights in the cut flower industry. Topics cover social studies, history, government, citizenship and science. Questions are focused on getting students to consider who buys flowers in the family, for whom, and for what occasions.

"Clearly there's a link here to public schools, raising awareness of teachers and students," Cutler said. "Their purchasing decisions make an impact on the health of people all over the world."

— Liza Frenette