Flower Industry Equals Death for Flower Workers

The Flower Industry

The Flower Industry in Ecuador:
Dollars for businessmen, thorns for workers

Posted 2/14/06

By Eduardo Tamayo
Minga Informativa / ALAI
Translated by Connie Garcia

“Don’t buy flowers, because if you do, you buy death,” “Yes to work with
Dignity!” “Dollars for businessmen, thorns for workers,” The screams
resounded loudly at the Mariscal Sucre Airport in Quito, Ecuador. About a
hundred workers from the company Rosas del Ecuador, on strike for 3 years,
and supported by the Confederation of Nationalities of Indigenous People of
Ecuador (CONAIE for its Spanish Acronym) and the Austrian NGO, Suedwind –
ConAccion, protested on February 7 at the airport terminals where
companies ship flowers destined for Europe and the United States. Similar
actions were organized in Vienna, Austria, at the distribution centers for
flowers arriving from Latin America.

The purpose of these protests – as Valentine’s day approaches when the most
common gift is a rose bouquet - is to call attention to a little known
problem or one that so far has not been addressed to a broad public: the
difficult working conditions, health and life of the workers of the flower
industry of Ecuador, and at the same time, to propose solutions for these
problems.

One of the organizers of the protest is Christina Schroeder spokesperson in
Ecuador for Suedwind – ConAccion, an Austrian organization which for the
last 25 years has been actively working for “global and sustainable
development.”

“Our task is to inform – says Christina - the European consumers of what
hides behind a rose that one buys to make another person happy … through
this information work, we want the consumers of Europe to not only take
into account the price and the quality but also the working conditions in
the flower industry ”.

She clarifies that her organisation's intention is not to boycott the
Ecuadorian flower industry “ because we know how important it is and it
generates jobs in regions where it is difficult for people to find work. We
know that for many workers it is the principal source of income and we do
not want to destroy that, but we demand that the international standards of
the International Labor Organization, ILO, and the International Code of
Conduct for the Production of Flowers Cut for Exportation are observed.

This Code prepared by labor unions and NGOs, contains principles relative to
the freedom of affiliation and collective bargaining, equal treatment for
male and female workers, living wages, work-days as specified by the labor
law, health and safety, to stop the use of insecticides or illegal
chemicals, labor stability, environmental protection, to stop the use of
child and forced labor. Finally, this code, proposes reforms to achieve a
“social production which is socially and environmentally responsible and
which is not harmful to the workers”.

This international instrument is voluntary and is far from being followed in
Ecuador. Of the 400 companies dedicated to the production of flowers, 80 %
“dramatically break international social behavior, labor, and environmental
norms”, expressed doctor Jaime Breilh, Executive Director of CEAS (Centro de
Estudios y Asesoría en Salud - Health Research and Advisory Center).

Low wages and denied freedom of association

On the subject of salaries and wages, the majority of companies pay
minimum wages or some even less, when it comes to child labor. It is
obviously clear that the income of the employees that produce the flowers
is insufficient to have a life with dignity, since the minimum wage salary
is 160 dollars per month while the basic food basket for a family of 4 is
440.81 dollars per month, according to Ecuador’s National Institute of
Statistics and Census.

To the low wages, the fact has to be added that “the work is in the form of
production quotas which limits overtime pay; overtime is not recognized
after an 8-hour work day. Work has been extended beyond the 8-hour work
day, five days a week as specified by the Labor Code which requires two
continuous days for rest.” Said the economist demographer, Norma Mena
Pozo.

The right to freedom of association practically has been
annulled in the companies that produce flowers. “In Ecuador, in
2003, of the 400 companies, 4 had labor unions, and currently only 2 have
survived, and one of them, Rosas del Ecuador, has been on strike for
almost three years. The previous year laid off 37 workers because they
wanted to form an union”, adds economist Mena.

With the passing of the Shared Work Law, it is becoming a general rule to
subcontract work, favoring the presence of third party companies in this
sector. Third party companies, in many cases, break the labor laws by
denying workers their right to Social Security and other legal benefits.

Blanca Chancoso, member of the Campaign against CAFTA and the
Free-trade agreement, points out that “there is a lot of injustice that
is committed by the flower industry towards women. There is no
adherence to either the Labor Law nor Childhood Code with regard to
maternity leave, hours of lactation and they are only given one week leave
to give birth”.

Slow death

Jaime Breilh, who is conducting several investigations on the flowers
agribusiness and health, says that “the fact the production field is
putting business and profitability over social interests, is having a
real domino effect in a series of human, social, and health situations ”.
Among those he notes the following health and environmental ones:

- One of the principal effects is the “chronic toxicity secret killer”,
that is, to be exposed chronically to low intensity poisonous chemicals
that cause neurological effects on workers’ bone marrow, effects
in the liver and in kidneys, affecting the genetic stability by causing
genetic damage that can result in cancer or birth defects.

- Six of every 10 workers have health problems, with the aggravating
circumstance that many are not even aware of this. “The bad thing is
that given these type of problems, people are not aware or are not
afraid of them thinking that nothing is happening to them. In the short
term, this could result in cancer or a severe disability of the
neurological type where workers, who, by the age of 40, have lost notable
memory ability and higher neurological functions which can be projected to
the new generations.”

- Contamination of the superficial waters and the food chain. “In a study
that we did, we found 12 cases in the water systems of Cayambe and
Tabacundo – two municipalities located in the north of Ecuador – where there
is already contamination of superficial waters, affecting agriculture
fields, animals, cow milk, and the food chain ”.

- High water consumption by the flower industry. “ In a book that we are
preparing, we will report on the enormous amounts of water consumption, and
thehuge difference in its distribution. The percentage that goes to the
flower growers is very high. For example, one hectare used for flower
growing consumes over 900 cubic meters per month, while a traditional
hacienda uses between 5 and 6 cubic meters per month and a peasant
less than one cubic meter per month”.

The flower industry, in the current conditions, is socially unjust and
ecologically destructive. Although we must acknowledge that “ 15 to 18 %
are struggling to follow the green code, our struggle is for this code
to become a law and that no industry can break it”, Jaime Breilth
adds that “the final effort will be when the flower industry is
democratic and cooperative and not the property of the big corporations...“.