Do We Not Bleed?

Olga Tutillo is secretary general of Rosas del Ecuador, a flower workers union in Ecuador. She has worked at flower plantations for 22 years. She is 38 years old and has five children. Ricardo Zamudio is president of Cactus, a Colombian organization that conducts research on occupational health, labor conflicts and other issues related to the Colombian flower industry. Cactus also provides direct support for flower workers by providing legal advice, broadcasting a weekly radio program and by giving workshops on health and safety.

In Ecuador, there are more than 300 flower companies. Only four of these companies have unions. It is said that there are over 100,000 flower workers in Ecuador.	Multinational Monitor: How big is the flower industry in Ecuador and Colombia? Olga Tutillo:: In Ecuador, there are more than 300 flower companies. Only four of these companies have unions. It is said that there are over 100,000 flower workers in Ecuador. Seventy percent of these workers are directly hired and 30 percent are subcontracted. Ricardo Zamudio: There are about 700 flower companies in Colombia, and a total of about 6,000 hectares that are under flower cultivation. Colombia is the second largest flower producing country after Holland. There are about 90,000 flower workers in Colombia. Seventy percent of them are women. Most of them do not have high levels of education. They may have completed the equivalent of middle school. MM: Where are the cut flowers sold? Olga Tutillo:: Most of the flowers from Ecuador are exported to the United States, and some are exported to Russia. Ricardo Zamudio: About 75 percent of the flowers produced in Colombia are shipped to the United States. About 12 percent are exported to the European Union and the rest are exported to other countries, including Russia and Japan. MM: How fast is the industry growing? Olga Tutillo:: In Ecuador, the flower industry grew most significantly between 1996 and 2000, but since 2000 it hasn’t grown as fast. In fact, some companies have gone out of business. The business owners say it has to do with the dollarization of the economy, which happened in 2000, and that it has made it harder for them to compete, especially with Colombia. Ricardo Zamudio: The Colombian flower industry began in the 1960s. Colombian flowers are very successful in the international market for several reasons: the high quality of the flower, the trade preferences Colombia has with the United States, the access to natural resources; and because the flower industry is an export industry they are exempt from taxes. Also, the success of flower industry is based on the use and abuse of the workers. The amount of money brought in by the Colombian flower industry continues to increase. In 2003, flower exports earned $673 million. MM: Who are the cut-flower employers? Olga Tutillo:: Plantation owners in Ecuador are often from Holland or Colombia, but there are some who are Ecuadorian. Originally all the hiring was done directly, so all the workers worked for the plantation owner. But since 2002 it has become very common to have workers subcontracted through someone else. Ricardo Zamudio: The size of flower companies varies in Colombia. There are very large, successful companies; there are medium-sized companies; and there are small companies. Some are all Colombian owned and some are mixed Colombian and foreign owned. Since 1998, it has become more foreign because Dole became more involved in the flower sector in Colombia. There is some direct hiring, but there is an increased tendency to use subcontractors, which are frequently called cooperatives. MM: How much are the workers paid? Olga Tutillo:: In Ecuador, the minimum wage, which is also the flower workers’ wage, is $145 per month. Workers are paid every two weeks. There are production goals. Workers have to complete those goals, and always for the same salary, regardless of the number of hours worked. Ricardo Zamudio: The minimum wage in Colombia, which is also the wage paid to flower workers, is $165 per month. But there is an increasing tendency to hire workers and pay them by piece work. They may be hired through so-called cooperatives, which are really used as subcontractors, or they may be hired as temporary workers. MM: What exactly do the workers do? What kind of conditions do they work in? Olga Tutillo:: Several years ago, workers were assigned 20 flower beds that they were responsible for taking care of. This number has now increased to 40 to 50 per worker. The work-related hazards include cuts from rose thorns — they have to cut or harvest a certain number of roses every hour, and in the hurry to harvest the set number, they often cut themselves. There are also problems caused by pesticide fumigation. Fumigation happens every day, either to prevent the plants from getting different diseases or to deal with it when they do get those diseases. Some of these chemicals are highly toxic. Ricardo Zamudio: In Colombia, it is basically the same as in Ecuador. There are basically two stages in the process. One is in the greenhouse, where workers plant the seedlings, weed, keep the plants in perfect condition and then harvest the roses. The second stage is post-harvest, where they have a separate room where they classify the roses according to size and color and then pack them in boxes. Work-related risks result from the intensive use of pesticides, as Olga said. They also have problems because of the repetitive movements they are doing every day on the job. Problems with posture; back pain because they are standing all the time or because they are leaning over to weed all of the time. Some psychological problems because of the pressure and stress to work harder and faster to meet the production goals that are higher and higher every day. Also, the relationships with their supervisors are not always the best. MM: What protections from pesticides are given to workers? How do exposures affect them? Olga Tutillo:: Pesticides are used every day. When workers are not well protected, they have immediate reactions such as headaches and vomiting. If it is a strong chemical, sometimes they faint. Ricardo Zamudio: In Colombia, pesticides are used quite intensively. Different chemicals have different levels of toxicity. Some plantation owners have tried to decrease the amount of chemicals they are using because they have been criticized for the impact that these pesticides have had on peoples’ health and the environment, and also because it would help them lower their costs. But the use of pesticides continues to be very common and frequent. Protection given to workers varies from company to company. Some companies do comply with the legal requirements of what they should give the worker, which is masks. Other companies do not comply or do not train their workers in the safe use of pesticides, or they offer no equipment or equipment in poor condition. MM: Where do the workers come from? Are they displaced rural people, or people from the cities? Olga Tutillo:: Ecuadorian flower workers are poor people from different communities who don’t have training for other careers. Ricardo Zamudio: Originally most flower workers were peasants, but now there are some who are from Bogota and from semi-rural areas. And recently, with the situation of political violence, there have been more people working on flower plantations who have come to the Bogota area because they have been displaced as a result of violence in coastal areas. MM: What’s the profile of the workforce? Olga Tutillo:: Flower companies used to hire a lot of women, but they are not hiring very many women anymore because they do not want to have to give maternity leave or permission for the women to take care of their children. They pretty much only hire people who are between the ages of 20 and 35. It’s very hard for someone after the age of 35 to get a job. In some companies, they do hire people starting at age 15, and many companies require them to take a pregnancy test when they apply for a job. Ricardo Zamudio: In Colombia, about 65 percent of flower workers are women. There are workers between the ages of 18 and 60, but the recent tendency is for most workers to be between 25 and 35. MM: Where do the workers live? Olga Tutillo:: During the high production seasons, for example at the start of the year until Valentine’s Day, when workers work frequently from 7 AM until 3 AM the next morning, those workers who live far away are given mattresses so that they can rest for a couple of hours and then go back to work. Those who live nearby would go home. Ricardo Zamudio: In Colombia, the plantation owners do not provide housing. Workers who have worked a long time on the flower plantations might own their own house, but many others are renting. It’s common to find many families renting rooms in the same house; so one family may have one room. MM: Do workers stay with the same employer? How long does the average worker continue in the industry? Olga Tutillo:: Workers might move to a different company while they are looking for a place that treats them well and pays relatively well. So, if they find a place like that, some of them stay 10 years, 18 years, or more. At companies that don’t pay well or offer job stability, or that mistreat their workers, a worker might stay for a month or maybe even half a day if they are really mistreated. But most flower workers have always worked in flowers and have not worked in other sectors and are unlikely to move to another sector. They are more likely to move to another flower plantation. Ricardo Zamudio: In Colombia, as well, there are a lot of people who have worked in flowers for a very long time. There are people who have worked at one plantation for a long time and there are other people who have moved around. It’s becoming more common for workers to rotate between companies, partly because companies are offering more short-term contracts at three to 12 months. It benefits a company to have a workforce that’s been at their company for a long time because you don’t need to train the workers, but it can also benefit them to have their workers rotate because it prevents union formation. And if the rotating workforce has all been trained at one plantation or another, then a new company does not have to do very much training to get them started at their own plantation. MM: What is the legal status of the workers? Olga Tutillo:: In Ecuador, subcontracting has become increasingly frequent. So at a company that has 200 workers, about 50 might be permanent workers hired directly by the company, and the other 150 would probably be subcontracted through about 10 different contractors, which helps prevent unionizing. Ricardo Zamudio: In Colombia, there is also a significant number of people who over the last three years have been hired through subcontractors. They’re using cooperatives as subcontractors, even though that’s not the original intention of a coop. Cooperatives are not governed by the labor legislation, and therefore workers who are hired by cooperatives lose the right to unionize, and they can lose other benefits that the labor law would normally give directly hired workers. MM: Are the workers able to unionize? What happens if they try? Olga Tutillo:: It is extremely difficult to unionize in Ecuador. The companies are organized among themselves and they have a list on the Internet of the people who have tried to unionize or have unionized. So, if someone tries to create a union, the company threatens to fire them and says they won’t be able to find another job. These are the famous blacklists. And this is why in 300 flower companies in Ecuador, there are only four that have unions — the other attempts to unionize have been repressed. Ricardo Zamudio: In Colombia as in Ecuador, people are fired or threatened for trying to unionize. There is a strong anti-union attitude among the business owners. Another thing that happens is that companies will form their own version of a union and try to get workers to join. Owners do this as a way to stop the growth of independent unions and to try to show that they do respect labor rights because there is a union that does exist. But in realty these “unions” just represent the interests of the business. Companies have also managed to convince the workers that unions lead to companies’ going bankrupt or falling apart or failing. I have talked with workers at companies where it’s actually been the company’s fault — maybe through their attempts to get rid of the union or whatever — that the company has fallen apart, but the workers have been led to believe that it was their fault for unionizing. Or neighboring companies have convinced their workers that the company has failed for that reason. MM: Are certification programs designed to show flowers are grown with decent labor conditions the answer? Olga Tutillo:: There are some companies in Ecuador that have the Flower Label Program. In my experience, I have noticed that there has been some improvement and that workers have benefited from this program. But, particularly while the company is going through the process of trying to get the certification, and then once the company has certification, they sometimes are pretty lax on things. [Ed. note: There are fewer than 30 companies that are certified in Ecuador, largely because the certification program has not gained traction in the United States, the primary export market for Ecuador. The certification program has been much more successful in Kenya and Tanzania, which export primarily to Europe.] Ricardo Zamudio: Certification programs are an important tool although they are not the solution. They can be helpful depending on their characteristics: the standards they set; how participatory they are; how much workers and unions participate in the process; how much the workers are educated about the program and about their rights; the quality of the audits and the inspections. So they definitely could contribute to improved working conditions, but they are not going to resolve the problem on their own. The other important things that are needed are stronger laws and real respect for freedom of association. MM: What can consumers do to help alleviate this problem? Olga Tutillo:: One thing consumers can do when they are buying flowers is to ask whether the seller knows about the conditions they were sold under. Frequently in Ecuador, there are flower expos where lots of buyers come to Ecuador and tour lots of plantations. They are looking at the quality of the flowers and deciding whether to buy from that plantation. It would be great to encourage them to also look at the working conditions while they are there and factor that in their decision making and pressure the companies to improve where there are problems. Ricardo Zamudio: Along with many other NGOs and unions, I do not promote a boycott of flowers. I want to make sure that workers can keep their jobs. Things the consumer can do is, first, to educate themselves about the process under which flowers are produced and the different problems that exist; the living and working conditions of the workers. Unfortunately, there is no real effective mechanism now that lets consumers know how each rose in the store was produced. You can’t choose a flower because it was produced under good conditions and avoid those that were not, because you just don’t know. But hopefully that is an option that will be developed over time so that consumers can express their preferences. Consumers can help pressure the ministries of labor in Colombia and Ecuador to inspect the flower plantations more frequently, impose sanctions when there are problems and help the companies to improve.
The minimum wage in Colombia, which is also the wage paid to flower workers, is $165 per month. But there is an increasing tendency to hire workers and pay them by piece work.
Pesticides are used every day. When workers are not well protected, they have immediate reactions such as headaches and vomiting. If it is a strong chemical, sometimes they faint.
In Colombia, as in Ecuador, people are fired or threatened for trying to unionize. There is a strong anti-union attitude among the business owners.