Call of the Millions

Issue 4: Spring 2013

we are nothing and we should be everything...this is the call of the millions

Farm Labour Under Pressure

"It's ironic that those who till the soil, cultivate and harvest the fruits, vegetables, and other foods that fill your tables with abundance have nothing left for themselves. "We draw our strength from the very despair in which we have been forced to live. We shall endure." Cesar Chavez

About Call of the Millions:

The Call of the Millions is an online newsletter produced by international solidarity activists in North East England, but with a endless global reach. The idea of a newsletter flowed naturally from our involvement in the Playfair campaigns of 2008 and 2012, as well as our experience working with campaigns such as War on Want, Bananalink and Labour Behind the Label. We believe in practical international solidarity and hope that this newsletter can be one piece in the jigsaw. Our aim is to draw the links between global struggles and our own struggles as trade unionists and community activists right here in the North East. We hope that this will be a collective effort and welcome contributions, comments and involvement from activists and researchers, both in the region and internationally.

In This Issue:
farm labour in the world economy p2; corporate boycotts p5; on international womens day p6; millions in action p7; solidarity interview p8; international women p10; the chocolatiers p11; millions in action for Mexico p12; extras p13

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farm labour under pressure

Agricultural workers have never been candidates for the labour aristocracy, however you view the term. Dirt poor, job-hopping, working in a chemical haze and often without a trade union voice. Like elsewhere, agriculture is dominated by massive TNCs who organise crop production on a global scale. And the rise of modern mega retailers standing at the head of vast supply chains, pushing costcutting onto the growers and their workers creates extra pressures. Facing this, what can farmworkers and their organisations do? Heres what 1 LATIN AMERICAN PLANTATIONS The case of the fruit pickers of Central America is one of the best known farm labour stories in the UK. Major unions (like the GMB) have worked with the NGO Bananalink to publicise the situation and develop trade union organising with the affiliates of the regional agricultural workers federation, Colsiba. Progress has been hampered by the hostility of the multinationals towards unions and the range of obstacles deployed to frustrate their advance. Some of these are sophisticated mechanisms of co-optation, others rely more on coercion and repression. 2012 has brought real advances. New collective bargaining agreements were signed with plantations supplying Chiquita, Dole and Del Monte, in Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Ecuador. In the Costa Rican case, this was achieved through strike action in the Sixaola region. An epic legal campaign against Doles use of pesticides was finally settled to the benefit of 5,000 exworkers. And Chiquita agreed to work with Colsiba on gender discrimination in its hiring and working practices.

In the arenas of national legislation and policy, there are new rights for working mothers and social security entitlements in Ecuador. Labour law reform in Costa Rica pushed forward the cause of collective bargaining and denied legal backing for its phony worker committees. Of course there is still resistance to the cause of labour rights blacklisting, unionbusting and physical assaults are also part of the 2012 story. Overall union densities across Latin American agriculture remain low, around 10%, so theres still plenty to do (see the Bananalink interview on p 7)

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farm labour in the US

The American fields have seen a long and often brutal confrontation between waves of migrant workers and growers determined to crush labour struggles for a better way of life. California has been at the centre of this conflict since the early 20th century yet it was from here that the strongest farm labour movement so far, the United Farm Workers, emerged in the 1960s and 70s, using innovative strategies and a civil rights style to win recognition, contracts and real benefits for a predominantly migrant Workforce. The UFW no longer has the same power today. But its core approach combining grass-roots organising, consumer boycotts, marches, and alliances with community groups lives on in the work of leading farm labour organisations whose members face many problems. Their working conditions are notoriously unsafe (routine exposure to lethal chemicals); they struggle to gain suitable housing (forced to sleep out in the fields, stuck in poorly equipped labour camps, or in unincorporated settlements that lack basic amenities). All this compounds their vulnerable status as guest workers or undocumented migrants. For the likes of FLOC (the Farm Labor Organising Committee) and the CIW (Coalition of Immolakee Workers) these circumstances demand wide-ranging campaigns, targeting growers and the multinationals who buy their crops, to gain recognition and basic workers rights.

FLOC used this approach to win recognition for farm labour in the Midwest and North Carolina, including migrant H2-A guest workers. Now it is campaigning for tobacco workers and calling on the likes of RJ Reynolds to take responsibility for conditions in its supply chains, and sign union contracts with its workforce.

CIW operates along similar lines in Florida. It successfully campaigned against the fast food outlets and food service providers that control the price and wage structure of the tomato industry. Beginning with the Taco Bell boycott in the early 2000s, the coalition has drawn in support from an expanding range of allies, and now heads a national campaign for Fair Food. Corporations and growers signing up to this have helped CIW deliver real changes for its 5,000 members in wage rises, complaints resolution mechanisms, and extra health and safety. Impressive stuff from a one-time poor and powerless migrant labour community.

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the southern zone

In the southern hemisphere,things are a bit different. Some countries are notorious for their abuses of workers rights and pathological hostility to trade unions the infamous case being Colombia. But look further south and there is a welcome change. Brazil, the largest country and massive agricultural producer, enjoys a healthy union movement, with some astronomical membership figures. The agricultural workers confederation, CONTAG, which includes 4,000 unions, is around 8 million strong! Each year this massive body holds a demonstration known as 'grito da terra' (cry of the earth) to publicise the demands of its members who are both family farmers and waged workers.

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Their demands, which are nothing outrageous, include: better access to housing a 40 hour maximum working week tackling informal employment legal changes to support union activity a crackdown on the use of pesticides greater access to land for rural workers.

CONTAG argue that there are ample profits made from Brazilian agriculture, a fair portion of which should go to their members rather than the bulging pockets of the agricorporations. Fair enough.

In 2012 it also began a campaign specifically for farm waged workers, with 4,000 demonstrators in March calling on the new government to support a National Policy for Rural Workers.

Next Issue: Farm Labour in Asia & Africa

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Consumer boycotts weapon or diversion?

Trade unionists everywhere deplore the antics of MNC's their dismissal of workers rights, hostility to trade unions, poor environmental record, etc. Can we use consumer power to bring these giants to heel?
The tactic is familiar enough from the long struggle against apartheid. Boycotts were a central feature of the United Farm Workers campaigns in the 1960s. Elsewhere though, they are not always favoured by supporters of workers rights. So what are the pros and cons of consumer boycotts? We asked two interested parties: Steve Grinter, ex international garment workers federation (ITGLWF) and Murray Worthy from War on Want; COTM: Are boycotts a good idea? SG: Campaigners are often divided over the demands they make on the brands, especially on whether or not to call for global boycotts. Even a small campaigning organisation can mobilise to bombard a brand with thousands of emails. However launching a credible corporate boycott requires a level of mobilisation and support on a whole different scale. Realistically only a global trade union has the capacity and relationship with affiliates in both supplier and consumer countries to contemplate leading a corporate boycott. However only in the most extreme circumstances such as mass coordinated dismissal and even murder of trade union members, is it likely that workers representatives would be likely to agree to support a corporate boycott. MW: Boycotting products is a tactic that campaigners can use like many others. Whether or not they are the right tactic to use at any time will depend on the context theyre used in. Boycotting can be an effective strategy, for example against the actions of countries, rather than companies. This why War on Want supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israels breaches of international law. The strategy, led by a call from Palestinian civil society, aims to isolate and put pressure on the Israeli state, including through boycotting companies complicit in Israels illegal occupation of Palestine. Contact us: callofthemillions@topmail Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/TheCallOfTheMillions COTM:Do boycotts work in a global economy? SG: Calling for consumers to boycott individual brands or even imported goods from entire countries is a high risk strategy. A successful boycott would put at risk the jobs of workers directly or indirectly employed in the supply chains involved. If the target were an entire country, success of the campaign would entail buyers placing their orders elsewhere where conditions for workers may be even worse. Often the spur to a campaign arises from exposure of gross violations of worker rights by particular suppliers. However the easiest and quickest remedy for a brand is to cut and run rather than to take effective measures to clean up their supply chain. MW: When campaigning for workers rights in global supply chains, many organisations dont support boycotts, as ultimately the problems that lead to workers rights violations are structural it is the rules of the game that need to be changed, not just how each company acts. COTM: Where do trade unions fit in? SG: The key to achieving sustainable progress in campaigns for worker rights is to strengthen rights to freedom of association. Neither CSR programmes nor NGO-led consumer campaigns to improve worker rights can succeed without strong trade union engagement at every level. This is why campaigners at national level need to establish and consolidate relationships with trade unions in their respective countries.

On International Women's Day:

A review of the TUC's Newcastle Event
I learned something new today. While researching the background to IWD for this article, I learned that International Women's Day started out as International Working Women's Day. But that's nothing compared to how much I learned at the event on the 8th March... International Women's Day was first celebrated in March 1911. Originally conceived of by German Socialist Luise Zietz, it was agreed at an International Women's Conference in 1910 with the aim of promoting equal rights and suffrage for women. Although celebrated in much of Northern Continental Europe and Russia for many years, it wasn't until the UN first declared March 8 as the UN Day for women's rights and world peace in 1977 that it came to be known more globally. With international activists, representatives of NGOs, refugees , local artists, and everything in between, the event organised by the TUC in Newcastle for 2013 celebrated the strength and creativity of women on both a global and a local scale. The second speaker was Alfamir Castillo, President of The Women's Sugar Cane Cutter's Committee of Colombia. Her story is a shocking and harrowing one, but out of it comes and amazing, inspirational picture of strength, organizing and resistance. On 8 February 2008, Alfamir Castillos son was murdered by the Colombian army: the War On Want website explains that The case was what is known in Colombia as a "false positive extrajudicial execution", where the army kills civilians and then falsely claims them as fallen guerilla fighters.(see links page).

Alfamir has made the case public, seeking justice for her son, and her nephew, a soldier forced into hiding after raising the alarm. Because she has refused to accept these terrible events and has spoken out, she and her family have been displaced from their home and they are under constant threat. Despite this, Alfamir ceaselessly continues to work for justice for her son, seeking solidarity both internationally and at home: and this is where the The Women's Sugar Cane committee comes in. The aim of The Women's Sugar Cane Cutter's Committee is to make visible the extreme poverty of the sugar cane workers lives. A collective of wives, mothers and daughters, the group has come together to organise to campaign for their rights. They have already gained support from unions worldwide, and have managed to obtain enough funds to obtain a base to work from, a space where they can meet and hold workshops. The group aims to continue to educate themselves and their children and communities, as well as campaigning for better conditions and showing the world how life is for them,

The event was opened by Rafeef Ziahdah with a performance of her poem, We Teach Life Sir, a deeply moving response to being interviewed by the mainstream media about the Palestinian/Israeli conflict and her life as a Palestinian refugee. Looking at how the interviewer tried to maniplulate her words to fit his report, the poem's powerful, passionate words are a brilliant snapshot of Rafeef's strength and patience. There is a video of the poem available on youtube (see the links & extras page or click the image above for a direct link).

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The millions in action: US farm workers

thanks to FLOC, Contag , Fenacle and CIW for the photos Contact us: callofthemillions@topmail Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/TheCallOfTheMillions

Solidarity Interview: Jackie Mackay of Bananalink

2012 has seen real advances for your partners in Latin America. Are you optimistic for the future? Overall Banana Link is optimistic for the potential for improvements in the respect of core labour standards and - crucially - for measurable progress to made towards the payment of living wages for the workers that plant, pick and pack the tropical fruits we eat. The key reason for this is our engagement in the World Banana Forum - a multi-stakeholder initiative that brings together all of the actors that have power along the banana supply supply chain, from the most powerful, supermarkets, to the most vulnerable, workers and their unions. It is incredible that this forum - whose creation in 2009 was driven by farmers organisations and unions from the South - is putting the concerns of workers and farmers at the heart of its agenda. This means that global retailers and fruit companies are actively working in collaboration with workers and small producers to establish what a living wage is and how to ensure that it is paid throughout the industry. Learning about how to make the banana industry sustainable is being shared through a virtual library and we and other partners are currently working on a publication to bring together examples of best practice - from Colombia to Ghana - of how collective bargaining and other union activity is delivering better wages and conditions for workers, and how all industry players can learn from this. Bananalinks capacity building programme, Union-toUnion has been running for a while now. What are its major achievements? The programme has undoubtedly built the capacity of our Latin American partners to organise and educate members and to collectively bargain for better terms and conditions, and continues to do so. However I believe that its greatest achievement is the solidarity that has exists along supply chains - between the workers that grow our fruit and their unions - and unions in the UK, including those that organise the workers that are employed in the sale and distribution in the UK. This ongoing solidarity is demonstrated by the support of UNISON for the education programme, legal defence work and campaigning activity of SITAG Peru. Contact us: callofthemillions@topmail SITAG is a relatively new union with almost 5000 members engaged in banana, mango and other agro-industrial production that has grown thanks to funding from UNISON and in particular the solidarity relationship it has with the UNISON West Midlands Region. The union is now looking to a future where it can begin to cover some core costs with union dues which workers have struggled to afford and employers frequently withhold. The launch in 2011 of the GMB International Solidarity Fund is a commitment from that union of the need for ongoing political advocacy as well as funding for union activity on the ground. Recently monies - generated by regular branch donations - have supported the capacity building of four unions in Latin America with one, FETRABACH in Nicaragua, negotiating a new CBA which has given workers a 30% in wages. You are now involved in a campaign against supermarket power. Are they a big obstacle to workers rights in the sector? Supermarkets are the most powerful actors along banana - and many other - supply chains. As such they are critical to any sustainable improvements in labour standards and wage levels. Years of bitter banana price wars between the major UK retailers vying, in an incredibly competitive market, for more customers has seen the prices paid to suppliers fall to such low levels that there is simply not enough money left at the production end of the chain for workers to earn a living wage. Intense pressure on prices encourages suppliers to cut costs wherever possible - lowering for example health and safety standards in an industry that is the second most intensive user of agro-chemicals in the world and repressing the rights of workers to freely join trade unions and work for better conditions. Without supermarkets consistently paying prices that cover the real costs of production, including labour, it is hard to see how workers rights will be effectively protected on the ground.

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How did Bananalink get involved in the African agricultural sector?

For the last few years - as tropical fruit export production has been growing in West Africa - we have worked proactively to build relationships with trade unions organising workers in the banana and pineapple sectors. We have been keen to support the development of South to South solidarity with our Latin American partners who have decades of experience of organising and educating workers and bargaining for better wages and conditions often with the same multinationals investing in Africa. We are delighted that this is beginning to happen, with union partners from Africa now building their capacity to engage with their Latin American colleagues in the World Banana Forum, with a focus on sharing experience between women workers with the aim of working collectively to end the discrimination of women in the sector.

I n Latin America, for example, women only work in the pack-houses and fewer and fewer women are being employed. In Cameroon women work in the field and are often given these jobs which are very physically demanding and involve application of and increased exposure to agro-chemicals when pregnant or on return from maternity leave when still breastfeeding. Supporting knowledge and experience sharing - of problems and ways forward - between our Latin American and African women partners to empower them in the workplace and the union to ensure the rights of women's are respected is vital.

Bananalink now is part of an international campaign to Make Fruit Fair, alongside other labour rights NGOs. Has working on this larger platform helped the cause?
Banana Link has always worked in partnership with other NGOs campaigning for labour rights in Europe and the U.S. Partnership and the creation of alliances between organisations with common goals is the best way for us to have the most impact in working towards sustainable trade that delivers for workers and small producers. Make Fruit Fair has been a really successful collaboration and has significantly increased our capacity to campaign in consumer countries to support the demands of our Southern partners. Many of the urgent actions launched over the last few years have achieved change for workers and their unions . Just two examples, in Guatemala SITRABI leader Noe Ramirez had his protection restored and Chiquita and Dole, two multinationals targeted for their failure to respect the rights of women on their plantations are really beginning to address - with the unions - how things can be improved. The campaign - with new supporting organisations in Lithuania, Serbia, Poland and Macedonia, alongside the original partners in the UK, Germany, France and the Czech Republic are continuing to campaign under the Make Fruit Fair banner. Our current urgent action - at www.makefruitfair.org.uk calls for Noboa, one of the worlds biggest banana companies, to enter into serious dialogue with unions organising workers on some of its plantations in Ecuador. Make Fruit Fair will also continue to call for the regulation of supermarket buyer power at EU level. The EU has recently acknowledged that buyer power abuses are having a negative impact and what we now need is action to stop this.

What similarities and differences are there between the African and Latin American contexts?

Sadly there are many - hence our commitment to developing South - South solidarity. The fruit multinationals investing in Africa, including Dole and Del Monte, are the same ones that have operated in Latin America for decades and that dominate the global fruit trade. Their record on respecting labour rights is poor as is their failure to respect the environments in which tropical fruits are produced. Again this illustrates the importance of creation of the World Banana Forum which now provides a space in which corporate actors, unions and others can get together to address how to ensure core labour standards are respected, including the right to collective bargaining, how to ensure living wages are paid and how to work towards sustainable banana production. Del Monte are conspicuous by their absence from this forum which we are trying to redress! There are however differences - in terms of productivity and access to resources - and production systems differ for men and women.

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International women:
Iris Munguia of Colsiba

To become the first women leader of an international trade union body the Latin American federation of agricultural workers, Colsiba is something. That's only one part of the Iris Munguia story. Born and raised in a deeply machismo Honduran society, she has been a banana workers leader for over 30 years. The attitudes of her peers have often been hostile, but despite that she is clear that women cannot act alone: there are men who are aware and committed to social justice and to the defence of our rights. Only by men and women working together can we carry out the necessary transformation to bring about a fairer and worthy world for everyone. During her time as a union leader Iris coordinated the Colsiba working women's group, developing the self-belief, powers and potential of these workers to pursue their own interests. And there's plenty to do the banana sector hosts some grim practices of sexual discrimination, both in terms of its hiring (forced pregnancy testing) and everyday work (harassment).

The Colsiba group looks to promote the labour, sexual and reproductive rights of its members. One concern is to increase the job opportunities across the sector, where women are significantly underrepresented. They call for gender equality clauses to be added to Collective Agreements of affiliated organisations. Alongside inclusion must come participation in respect of their issues and immediate practical needs. A Womens Regional Agenda has been forged to take this forward, and local campaigns launched in Colombia. Iris is also a key member of the new World Banana Forum's Labour Rights group. Here she is pursuing the Colsiba women's agenda further, foregrounding gender discrimination as a central issue to address across the entire sector. In 2012 Colsiba hosted a pioneering global meeting for women banana workers as part of this ongoing work. ...all things are possible.....

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The Chocolatiers
Like most of our luxury and everyday goods, chocolate has its own dark side. The raw material, the cocoa bean, is grown mainly in Africa. And in some places this is carried on in relatively safe and sustainable ways, often bound up with Fairtrade certified producer cooperatives: The Kuapa Kokoo co-op in Ghana is a classic example. But elsewhere, things are different... The largest cocoa bean producer, Ivory Coast, has been at the centre of a high profile campaign in the US spotlighting the widespread use of child labour across the sector, involving up to an estimated 100,000 youngsters. The 'Raise the Bar' coalition of labour rights NGOs is pressurising the major US confectioner Hersheys to take action and clean up its supply chain here. Research has shown that these youngsters are not only forced to work long hours in unsafe conditions. Many are also victims of human trafficking, brought to Ivory Coast from nearby countries like Mali. That's a high price to pay for a treat

Meanwhile at the other end of the chocolate chain, workers at the US manufacturer Theo Chocolate have found themselves in an equally sour situation. Their employer, self-styled first and only fair trade organic beanto-bar chocolate factory in the US, took a pretty unfair view of its own workforce when they tried to get organised and join a Teamster local. Instead of upholding workers rights, they hired some 'union avoidance' consultants and embarked on a unionbusting campaign. The workers complained to the Institute of Market Ecology ( IMO), an independent organisation Theo Chocolate used to certify it operated in a fair and sustainable manner . And the IMO promptly ignored complaints about harassment and intimidation of union supporters, continuing to provide verification of the employers ethical credentials, including those referring to labour standards! Not so sweet.

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The Millions in Action 2:

Global Support for the Mexico Days of Action, February 2013.

Thanks to industriALL and the FAT for the photos

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want to know more?

Links, further reading & additional picture credits
Bananalink and the Make Fruit Fair websites carry up to date news on Latin American plantations : www.bananalink.org.uk and www.makefruitfair.org.uk On the history of farm labour in California, see the fascinating summary in the first part of Justin Akers Chacon's book 'No-One Is Illegal'. The story of the United Farm Workers is covered in a number of books and articles: try David Bacon's retrospective view as a starting point http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/7142/cesar_chavez_and_the_state_of_the_farm_workers_movement /

For FLOC visit their website, www.floc.com On their North Carolina campaign see David Bacon's article http://truth-out.org/news/item/12276-north-Carolinastobacco-workers-stand-to-benefit-from-states-strong-farmw The Coalition of Immokalee Workers can be found at www.ciw-online.org Brazil's CONTAG federation have a website in Portuguese, available in translation, at: www.contag.org.br

The Iris Munguia story is covered on the Bananalink website. See also an interview at http://www.lawg.org/action-center/lawg-blog/69-general/838-honduranunion-%20Leader-iris-munguia-who-will-gu On the chocolate industry see the reports by the International Labor Rights Forum, ILRF, available at http://www.laborrights.org/about-ilrf . See also the blog and responses at http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/ For more information on Alfamir Castillo, her son and the Women's Sugar Cane Cutters Committee, see http://www.waronwant.org/news/latest-news/17843-colombians-fight-injustice-and-povertyRafeef Ziahdah is a performance poet and also works for War on Want. For more information on her campaigning work, see http://www.waronwant.org/search?searchword=rafeef&ordering=&searchphrase=all To watch a video of the poem she performed at the Newcastle IWD event, go tohttp://youtu.be/aKucPh9xHtM The international women's day logo is from the logos page of http://www.internationalwomensday.com where there is lots more information on the history of the day and current events. The wikipedia entry at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Women's_Day is also interesting.