Women Farm Workers: Achieving Justice on the Job

Women Farm Workers: Achieving Justice on the Job

Women farm laborers are among the most exploited workers around the world—forced to endure long days in harsh conditions, paid subsistence wages and often subject to physical and psychological violence on the job. Yet they are standing up for their rights and demanding workplace justice through their unions and worker associations, as two Solidarity Center panels highlighted yesterday in New York City.

Hind Cherrouk says women farm workers in Morocco were key to winning a bargaining agreement that addressed gender inequality. Credit: Solidarity Center/Tula Connell

“The inability to access proper union representation and collective bargaining rights undermines women’s opportunity to advance themselves,” says Hind Cherrouk, Solidarity Center country program director for the Maghreb Region. Through empowerment and leadership training with the Democratic Labor Confederation (CDT) and Solidarity Center, Cherrouk says women farm workers in Morocco overcame social and cultural norms that repressed them and “actually sat at the negotiating table across from employers” and negotiated the region’s first-ever collective bargaining agreement covering farm workers.

Cherrouk joined workers and Solidarity Center representatives from Jordan and Peru on the Solidarity Center panel, “Rural Agricultural Women Workers Organizing to Increase Equality and Empowerment.” The panel, moderated by Robin Runge, Solidarity Center senior gender specialist, is among dozens of parallel events taking place this week in conjunction with the 62nd session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW). The CSW this year is emphasizing the challenges and opportunities in achieving gender equality and the empowerment of rural women and girls.

Women farm workers in Peru are negotiating contracts that enable them to care for their families. Samantha Tate Credit: Solidarity Center/Tula Connell

In Peru, women farm workers who participated in Solidarity Center gender equality and leadership training have gone on to negotiate child care at the workplace and enforcement of laws like paid time for breastfeeding and guaranteed jobs following maternity leave, says Samantha Tate, who headed up the program there.

“The really exciting, transformative piece of this work is that we have been able to take women who are very isolated to start to begin to feel connected,” she says. The women farm workers, many of whom work in the export agriculture industry planting and harvesting avocados, grapes, and asparagus, go on to train other women.  

Women Farm Workers Vulnerable to Abuse on the Job

Some 564 million women work in agriculture, and those in commercial agriculture are predominantly concentrated in temporary, informal and seasonal jobs, where they receive low wages and few or no benefits, and are exposed to dangerous and unsafe working conditions.

Ayat Al Bakr, a farm worker in Jordan, says she joined the union because women farm workers are forced to work long hours with low pay in scorching sun. Credit: Solidarity Center/Tula Connell

“When I talk about women farm workers in Jordan, it is considered to be a huge army. There are tens of thousands of them,” says Ayat Al Bakr, a farm worker and union organizer in Jordan. “But it is suffering from low wages and inability to earn a decent livelihood.”

Al Bakr says she joined the union because of “oppression, long working hours in the sun, very high temperatures, wages very low” and safe transportation for the workers to and from the fields. But just as important, she says, speaking through a translator, she and other women farm workers want their employers to treat them with respect.

“When woman workers are talking to each other, the employer may yell at them, just because they are talking, insulting them, calling them names just because they are women,” she says.

Such verbal bullying and harassment is one manifestation of gender-based violence at work, which also includes physical and sexual abuse, as speakers discussed at the panel#MeToo: Rural Women, Migrant Women, Sexual Assault, Access to Justice.”

CSW62, Solidarity Center, CIW, migrant workers, gender-based violence at work

Lupe Gonzalo describes a landmark agreement tomato farm workers won in Florida. Credit: Solidarity Center/Tula Connell

“For decades, women working in the fields carried the weight of disrespect” knowing they would be physically and psychologically abused on the job, says Lupe Gonzalo, a tomato farm worker and union organizer with the Coalition of Immokalee Farmworkers in Florida. “We couldn’t enjoy our time with our children at night because we knew we would go to the fields the next day and face the abuse again,” she says, speaking through a translator.

Gonzalo, who shared her story on both panels, described how the coalition succeeded in winning landmark agreements with corporate brands that enforce a code of conduct for growers who provide tomatoes. Through a 10-year campaign, 90 percent of Florida’s tomato fields now are covered by the code, which includes a zero tolerance policy for sexual abuse and other forms of gender-based violence.  

“Now we can enjoy our time with our children with no shame or guilt and know we will go to the fields and be safe,” says Gonzalo.

‘Women Need the Space to Be Leaders’

Sponsored by United Methodist Women, Women in Migration and the Solidarity Center, the panel also highlighted efforts of unions and other civil society organizations to ensure the United Nations Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration now being drafted make gender a key part of the final document, which will be adopted in December.

Solidarity Center, Nalishha Mehta, gender-based violence at work, migrant workers, CSW62

Nalishha Mehta from the Solidarity Center discusses the campaign for passage of a an ILO standard on gender-based violence at work. Credit: Solidarity Center/Tula Connell

“Migrant women without status don’t have access to justice,” says Cathi Tactaquin with the Women in Migration Network and the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.

“Simply saying women cannot migrate is not a solution,” says Nalishha Mehta, Solidarity Center program officer. “Women do not need protecting. Women’s rights need to be protected. Women need the space to be leaders.”

Mehta discussed the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) campaign for passage of an International Labor Organization (ILO) convention (standard) covering gender-based violence. Workers around the world could have access to a binding international standard covering gender-based violence at work after it is finalized. The Solidarity Center is among unions and other organizations around the world that have joined the campaign.

Despite their struggles, the women farm workers who took part in the panels say they are determined to continue working to ensure decent working conditons and dignity on the job for their sisters in the fields.  

“All of the work we are doing is the beginning to end decades and decades of abuse and modern day slavery,” says Gonzalo. “We continue with our struggle because we now there are thousands and thousands of women who continue to be abused.”

Women in Media: 1 in 2 Experience Violence at Work

Women in Media: 1 in 2 Experience Violence at Work

Nearly one in two women journalists have experienced sexual harassment, psychological abuse, online trolling and other forms of gender-based violence (GBV) while working—yet “up to three-quarters of media workplaces have no reporting or support mechanism,” says broadcast journalist Mindy Ran, citing results of a survey survey released this month by the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ).

Ran, IFJ Gender Council co-chair, overviewed the survey findings yesterday at the panel, “Challenging Impunity and GBV against Women Journalists and Media Workers,” one of dozens of parallel events taking place this week in conjunction with the 62nd session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) in New York City.

IFJ, gender-based violence at work, Solidarity Center

Credit: IFJ

Without safe and structured systems for reporting gender-based violence at work, employees are less likely to seek assistance—and, as the survey found, 66 percent of journalists who had experienced some form of gender-based violence said they had made no formal complaint.

“It is clear that the current approaches have had limited impact. We’re here to get practical,” says Ran, who opened the panel which included six experts in media and gender-based violence from around the world.

Journalists, like other workers, also experience gender-based violence outside their workplace while doing their jobs. The IFJ survey of 400 women in 50 countries found that 38 percent of perpetrators were a boss or supervisor and 45 percent were people outside of the workplace (sources, politicians, readers or listeners). Thirty-nine percent were anonymous assailants, such as through cyber bullying.

Gender-based Violence at Work: Global Issue Needs Global Solution

Mexico, one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists, has seen a “severe increase in violence against women journalists both online and offline,” says Aimée Vega Montiel, a research specialist in feminist communications at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and vice-president of the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR). Yet there is a “cycle of impunity” and “media companies are not ensuring safety for women journalists,” she says.

Zuliana Lainez Otero, president of the Latin American Federation of Journalists and IFJ executive council member, agrees. “Media owners, at least in Latin America, don’t offer protection,” says.

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Marieke Koning from the ITUC and the CLC’s Vicky Smallman joined the IFJ discussion on gender-based violence at work. Credit: Solidarity Center/Tula Connell

Gender-based violence occurs around the world, and is one of the most prevalent human rights violations. Yet few laws address even some forms of gender-based violence at the workplace, and those are not enough or not enforced, further enabling employers to ignore the issue. Marieke Koning, International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) policy advisor for gender equality, discussed how union activists, women’s rights champions and their allies can take action by joining the ITUC campaign for passage of an International Labor Organization (ILO) convention (standard) covering gender-based violence. Workers around the world could have access to a binding international standard covering gender-based violence at work after it is finalized.

The Solidarity Center has joined the campaign, which Koning says can give momentum to gender equality activists around the world, as did the years’ long effort leading to passage of the 2011 ILO Convention on domestic workers’ rights. Like the domestic workers’ campaign, which built powerful support networks around the world, Koning says, “we want to build alliances to pass the gender-based violence convention.”

Male Media Control ‘Should Be Next on Feminist Agenda’

Domestic violence also impacts those at the workplace, and Vicky Smallman, director of Women’s and Human Rights, Canadian Labor Congress (CLC), shared details of a CLC survey of more than 8,000 union members that found 67 percent had experienced domestic violence. Of those, 47 percent say they were prevented from going to work by their abuser and eight percent lost their jobs because of ramifications from their abuse.

Following the survey, the CLC went on help unions negotiate contracts with paid leave for workers experiencing domestic violence, and successfully lobbied two Canadian provinces to pass similar protections. Smallman credits the Australian union movement for taking the lead on the issue.

Several panelists discussed how the lack of data on women’s experiences in the workplace, and the rates of specific forms of gender-based violence at work hamper efforts to define and address the issues. Carolyn Byerly, chair of the Howard University Department of Communication, Culture and Media Studies, described the lack of representation by women in the media documented in Global Report on the. Status of Women in the News Media. As principal investigator of the report, Byerly says the gender imbalances are still valid 10 years after the report was published.

Byerly and others also warned that media consolidation is creating a global web of male structural power that further exacerbates inequities and inequalities in newsrooms and in media coverage.  

“The challenge we face is men’s control of media industries. The problem of media conglomerate is rampant around the world and is growing. We must put media ownership control on global feminist agenda,” she says.

Gunilla Ivarsson, former president of the International Association of Women in Radio & Television, discussed the association’s security handbook developed with a focus on women journalists, and ended the program, saying:

I think we all have been affected in one way or another. It’s important for us to go to action for change.”    

Women in Morocco, Tunisia Highlight GBV at Work

Women in Morocco, Tunisia Highlight GBV at Work

Women union activists and their allies in Morocco and Tunisia celebrated International Women’s Day this week with events that highlighted the need for a global standard to address gender-based (GBV) violence at work.

“Violence is escalating dramatically. Without an international agreement and deterrent laws that protect women at home, in society and in workplaces, we cannot move forward,” says Saida Ouaid, a member of the Executive Office of the Democratic Confederation of Labor (CDT) in Morocco.

Ouaid and other women union leaders and allies took part in a March 6 event “Toward an International Convention for the Elimination of Gender-Based Violence in the Workplace” at the Parliament in Rabat, in coordination with Morocco’s Secretariat of Equity and Equality.

Tunisia, gender-based violence, gender equality, Solidarity Center, Women's Day

Touriya Lahrech (far left),coordinator of the CDT’s Women Department, joins women union members to discuss an ILO convention addressing gender-based violence at work. Credit: Mohamed Yakkane

The International Labor Organization (ILO) is considering a convention (regulation) that would address violence and harassment against workers. The Solidarity Center is part of an International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) campaign for passage of a strong ILO convention.

In Tunisia, 100 union members from across the country gathered for a March 8 event where they also discussed the need for passage of an ILO convention on gender-based violence at work.

“The gathering is an opportunity for women to stand up for their struggles to defend their rights and freedom, and to promote equality and an environment free of  violence,” Samir Al-Shefi, deputy general-secretary of the General Union of Tunisian Workers (UGTT) Women, Youth and Association, said in opening the event.

Naima Hammami, one of two women on the UGTT’s executive office, paid tribute to the struggles of Tunisian, Palestinian, Syrian and Arab women around the world. The event was sponsored by UGTT’s Women, Youth and Association Department, together with the Solidarity Center.

Gender-Based Violence ‘Widespread at Work’

At both the Morocco and Tunisia events, experts discussed preliminary findings on gender-based violence at work based on participatory field research sponsored by the  Solidarity Center and CDT in Morocco and the UGTT in Tunisia.

Discussing the research in Morocco, Najat Al-Razi, a gender specialist and sociologist, says gender-based violence is “widespread in the world of work,” and “the most common form of violence against women in workplaces is sexual harassment.”

Asma al-Marani, a member of the Moroccan Union of Labor and the Arab Trade Union Confederation, pointed out that her union receives daily complaints about violence at work from  women working in the precarious and informal economy.

CDT leaders noted that as part of the global campaign for an international convention on the elimination of violence in the world of work, the union will continue meeting with a range of allies at the grassroots level until the Geneva Conference with a campaign to push the government to support the ILO draft convention, supplemented by a guiding document implementing the convention.

Representatives from the Njda Center, the Jusour Association, the Women’s Labor Union, the Association of Women for Equality and Democracy (Afed) and other union leaders and journalists also took part in the Rabat event.

#TimeIsNow: International Women’s Day 2018

#TimeIsNow: International Women’s Day 2018

Sorting olives, picking peaches and cultivating fields across a vast agro-industrial complex outside Meknes, Morocco, Hayat Khomssi says women workers like her once did not have access to higher-skilled jobs and leadership positions. But after she and her co-workers took part in Solidarity Center gender equality trainings and other skills-building workshops, more than 1,000 farm workers at the Les Domaines Brahim Zniber farm in 2015 negotiated their first collective bargaining agreement.

“Now we have achieved a similar status to that of the men,” she says, speaking through a translator. “Now women are able to be supervisors, team leaders, and are able to do pruning as well. Now they are equal to men in term of tasks but also in terms of pay.”

This year, International Women’s Day draws attention to the rights and activism of rural women like Khomssi and her co-workers, echoing the priority theme of next week’s 62nd session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) in New York City.

Celebrated annually on March 8, International Women’s Day this year builds on the current #MeToo movement for women’s rights, equality and justice, with women union activists and their allies holding marches, taking part in social media campaigns and hosting events around the globe to call for gender equality in wages, working conditions, political representation and more.

Follow UN Women’s Day events on Twitter with the hashtag #TimeIsNow.

Women’s Empowerment through Collective Bargaining

Morocco farm women will be among several rural women union activists discussing their advancements through gender equality training and collective bargaining on a Solidarity Center panel at the CSW, “Rural Agricultural Women Workers Organizing to Increase Equality and Empowerment.” They will be joined by Ayat Al Bakr, a Jordanian agricultural worker.

Some 564 million women work in agriculture, and those in commercial agriculture are predominantly concentrated in temporary, informal and seasonal jobs, where they receive low wages and few or no benefits, and are exposed to dangerous and unsafe working conditions.

A key part of Solidarity Center gender equality training involves exploring strategies for addressing gender-based violence at work. Gender-based violence (GBV) is one of the most prevalent human rights violations in the world—yet not enough is done to prevent it, especially at the workplace.

Globally, after years of campaigning by workers and their unions, the International Labor Organization (ILO) is negotiating a standard addressing gender-based violence at work. Workers around the world could have access to a binding international standard covering gender-based violence at work after it is finalized. The Solidarity Center is working with the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), which is coordinating the global union campaign for its passage. Find out how you can get involved.

Through Union, Myanmar Factory Janitor Sees Improved Benefits

Through Union, Myanmar Factory Janitor Sees Improved Benefits

Hello. I am Daw Tin Tin Thein. I am 43 years old. I have worked in this factory for nine years. I am responsible for sanitation and garbage collection in this factory. It means I am responsible for keeping this factory clean and tidy.

I have been a member of the trade union for four years. During these four years, I found that the negotiations and coordination between the factory owner and the CBA [collective bargaining agreement] have resulted in many successful resolutions.

Workers receive salaries and minimum wages. Workers also enjoy transportation services and social security benefits. We conduct educational activities under the leadership of CTUM [Confederation of Trade Unions-Myanmar].

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