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THIS STORY IS PART OF ILRF'S MOTHERS' STORIES SERIES. To read other stories, click here.

 

Karen was interviewed by ILRF's partner, COSIBAH in Honduras.

My name is Karen, I am twenty eight years old, and I have two daughters. I work on a melon farm in the fields turning melons and spreading lime. I have worked on the farm for four years, and I decided to work because what my husband earned was not enough for our family to eat.

Before leaving for work, I need to work for two hours at home and two hours after work to maintain my household. In the mornings I get up, bathe myself, and prepare food for everyone, including food for us to take to work. In the evenings, I have to wash clothes, prepare dinner, and sweep the house. My husband goes to the woods to find firewood in the evenings.

I earn $7 a day, $43 a week, and $185 each month. This is less than the minimum wage because they should be paying me $8 a day, and $243 a month. I work eight hours a day, 48 hours a week, and I work at the farm five months of the year. My employer directly hires me on a temporary contract. In order to cover the costs of my family, I would need to earn $317 a month. My employer does not pay into social security, and we do not receive any maternity leave or benefits.

At work, I am not treated with respect. The supervisors yell at us a lot, and the amount of work required is too much. I have also been a victim of discrimination. The last time I was pregnant, they fired me from my job. I don’t feel we work in a safe and healthy environment because if we have to go to the bathroom, we do it outside in the fields, we drink water from contaminated wells, and the boss does not give us protective equipment in the field.

I haven’t tried to form a union; on the melon farms, we know very little about unions, but we have learned about organizing from COSIBAH. If I could change two things at work, it would be that the boss would respect the rights of the workers and that they would paid us a higher wage.

If I could send a message to consumers in the United States, it would be that we need people that buy melons to require the business owners to provide us with the rights we should be guaranteed under law and that they treat us more fairly.

Karen is not alone. Unskilled women workers have entered export-processing industries throughout the developing world at an alarming rate. Women overwhelmingly occupy the lowest paying, most unstable jobs, producing our clothes, agricultural products and other luxuries for export to the US.