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Colombian Flower Workers Fired for Seeking Union. You Can Help |
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Six workers at the Mongibello flower plantation just outside of Bogotá, Colombia, were illegally fired earlier this month for trying to form a union. The actions, which are illegal under Colombian law, are just another example of the lax enforcement of labor laws in that country that must be addressed before a free trade agreement with Colombia can be considered.
All six workers—José Alexander Montenegro, José Abel Rincón, Samuel Rico, Juan Bautista López, Milton Páez and Sergio Fabián Bossa—had worked on the flower plantation for more than 15 years each. The workers decided to contact one of Colombia’s labor federations, the CUT, to talk about organizing a union. When management at the plantation discovered their plans, the six workers were immediately fired.
You can take action now to help these workers. Click here to tell management of the Mongibello plantation that illegal firings are unacceptable and to respect the labor rights of all workers employed by their company.
More than 60 percent of the flowers sold in the United States come from Colombia. Two-thirds of the nearly 100,000 flower workers in Colombia are women, many of them working mothers. They often are required to work 12–to–15-hour days with few breaks, especially in the weeks before holidays like Mother’s Day and Valentine’s Day (see video). As a result, many have been injured on the job and suffer health problems related to overexposure to pesticides and humiliating and degrading treatment by management—all for poverty-level wages.
In July, workers at the Splendor and La Fragancia flower plantations signed contracts with Dole Fresh Flowers, a subsidiary of U.S.-based Dole Food Co. and the largest grower and exporter of flowers from Colombia. After the workers at the two plantations formed unions in 2004 and 2005, the company refused to negotiate bargaining agreements with these unions. Instead, Dole negotiated a “sweetheart” deal with a company union that gave almost no benefits to the workers. Dole also launched anti-union campaigns that included closing its largest flower plantation after a two-year effort by workers there to form a union.
U.S. Labor Education in the Americas Project (USLEAP), an advocacy group promoting labor rights in Latin America, has been urging Dole and other flower producers to address workers’ rights on their banana and flower plantations. Click here to learn more about USLEAP’s flower campaign.
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I have ridden the buses with the people who work at many of these flower plants outside of Bogota. The treatment they describe sometimes is unbelievable. But what is worse is what is eluded to in the article that the labor laws are lax. It is beyond that - it is massive corruption both in private and public sector. It is that massive unchecked corruption with impunity for the rich that has allowed US aid to actually contribute to the deaths of civilians and has (according to a UN report) increased the cocaine planting in the country instead of reducing it as it was intended to do. Until many strides with sustained positive results are made not only in the reduction of murders of union members and the abuses against them, but in the corruption, justice system and impunity from the law for the rich and elite, a FTA with the country should be absolutely out of the question. Such should not even be considered for at least a year and most likely two years.