Date of publication: January 22, 2008
Source: Corporacion Cactus
14 de febrero, Día Internacional de las trabajadoras y trabajadores de Flores: “Somos más importantes que miles de Flores Juntas”.
Press release No. 1: January 22, 2008
The cost of a flower
International Day of Flower Workers: February 14
Margarita Pérez (name has been changed for her protection) was born in Duitama Boyacá 43 years ago. She grew up there, and went to school until 4th grade, when she followed in the footsteps of one of her four sisters, to try her luck in Bogota. In 1987, at the age of 19, she started work at Flores Arrayanes, where she worked for six years in the parking department, classifying about 1,000 flowers per hour.
She remembers the company fondly because she met her husband there, but also because the working conditions were exceptional and there was an independent union. “It was the best company I have ever worked in… there I learned about respect, because there they respected and motivated workers.”
In 1995, Margarita started work in another company, doing the same job. She contrasts it with her first job: “I know girls who were fired because they couldn’t stay and work overtime and they yelled at them. They were rude, and many times we had to just hang our heads because we needed the work.”
That was where she had the work accident that led to back pain, which today paralyzes half of her body. After the first surgery, she was supposed to be reassigned to a different position in the company where she would do less strenuous work and be able to recover fully. She was never relocated, the pain continued, and got worse. After the second surgery, she woke up without being able to feel anything in the left half of her body. Today, she is about to receive disability insurance, after 4 years of paperwork and arguing with the company, the Ministry of Social Protection, and the ARP. Her employers still owe her compensation for the damages caused by their negligence in refusing to relocate her to a less strenuous job.
Despite everything, Margarita values her work in floriculture, because of everything she learned about flowers, their varieties, and qualities.
Stories like this inspired Corporación Cactus, a development NGO, and other local, national, and international organizations to promote this celebration, so that on Valentine’s Day, the World not only speaks of exports, Exchange rates, flowers, and bouquets, but also of the faces and realities of the workers that make the industry possible.
So, like thousands of other workers, Margarita will be honored on February 14, the International Day of Flower Workers.
Colombia is the second largest exporter of flowers after Holland, and the primary provider of flowers to the US market. According to the Bank of the Republic, in 2006, 55% of flowers sold in the US were from Colombia.
According to Asocoflores (2007), there are 98,641 people directly employed by the flower industry, and 83,533 indirectly employed. For them, work in floriculture represents the possibility of a job, in a context of widespread unemployment and informality.
But despite the constant political and economic backing that the exporters receive in times of crisis, the workers share the losses but not the profits: The average salary in the sector is minimum wage, which is insufficient to cover a family’s Basic survival needs. Job stability is constantly threatened by changes in employer whims, climate, or market demand, which last year left about 6,000 workers from Splendor Flowers and Flores de la Sabana unemployed.
Hiring through cooperatives and other intermediaries is also common, and it allows employers to violate legal norms and repress union organizing. In floriculture, hidden anti-union practices are common, particularly through the formation and promotion of company unions which do not represent workers’ rights and which negotiate in favor of employers’ interests.
Working days are excessively long, especially around times like Valentine’s Day, when they can be up to 20 hours long. Production quotas range from 250-300 stems per hour for harvesters and 1,250 to 1,500 per hour for those who work in the classification and parking department. These demands lead to occupational health risks.
Flower production can also be found in the Netherlands, Ecuador, Israel, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Zambia, and more recently in Japan and China. This is an industry that is competing in a race to the bottom in terms of labor conditions.
This celebration started in Colombia but has extended to other producing and consuming countries like Ecuador, Kenya, the Netherlands, the US, Canada, and Austria, where forums, radio programs, protests, and conferences are held to promote flower workers’ rights and better working conditions.
Margarita’s fight for her rights continues, and she does not hesitate to call work in floriculture a form of exploitation. She would like to tell international consumers that “they are buying the sweat of many workers. They can help by raising awareness and helping to persuade [employers] so that they refrain from violating workers’ rights.”
More information:
Angélica Chaparro
CORPORACIÓN CACTUS
Telefax: 571 2555073
571 3458329 - 3458340
Carrera 25 No. 51-37 Of. 301