 |
|
|
'Unacceptable' Work Conditions in Chile's Fields |
|
Hundreds
of thousands of people who work Chile's farmland are victims of
abuse and mistreatment by employers and poisoning from pesticides,
charge health, indigenous and union activists.
SANTIAGO- Pesticide poisoning, lack of employment
contracts, child labor and denigrating treatment are the daily reality
of hundreds of thousands of agricultural workers in Chile, according
to a local and international campaign for health and labor rights.
The condemnations are coming from RAP-AL (Latin American Pesticide
and Alternatives Network), the Association of Rural and Indigenous
Women (ANAMURI), the Latin American Observatory of Environmental
Conflicts (OLCA), and three trade union organizations.
They say there are some 800,000 people working in Chile's fields,
half of them seasonal laborers during the October-April season,
and that of those workers, 250,000 are women, with many children
and adolescents making up the workforce as well.
Sixty percent of these workers do not have an employment contract,
which makes them vulnerable to numerous types of abuses, including
employers failing to keep promises about dates of employment or
paying the wages agreed verbally, say the activists.
The Chilean agri-business community ''takes advantage of the ignorance,
lack of information and lack of mobility of most farm workers,''
ANAMURI secretary-general Alicia Muñoz told Tierramérica.
The unionists also denounce prolonged workdays -- up to 16 hours
-- without overtime pay; clandestine child labor -- ''many parents
take their children as young as seven years old to the fields''
--; and the proliferation of ''enganchadores'', intermediaries who
supply workers to the big corporate farms, mostly producing crops
for export.
''They recruit, transport and pay the workers, obviously without
hiring contracts. This contributes to diluting responsibilities
when there are work accidents, illegal actions, irregularities,
abuses and harm against the workers,'' said the groups in a statement
presented to director general of the International Labor Organization,
Juan Somavía, a Chilean himself.
The letter says the ''unacceptable conditions'' for workers in that
sector include worksites that do not meet the basic health and hygiene
standards established under current law, and lack bathing facilities
for the workers, potable water, a place to eat, and childcare facilities.
The groups also cite figures from the Ministry of Health, that from
January to November 2004 there were 565 cases reported of acute
poisoning from pesticides, resulting in two deaths -- no lives had
been lost under these circumstances since 2000.
Many of the agro-toxins involved, says the statement, are included
in the categories ''extremely dangerous'' and ''highly dangerous''
established by the World Health Organization, and have proven harmful
health effects in the medium and long term, including a greater
propensity for cancer, neurological damage and reproductive problems.
''After going through the corresponding national agencies without
achieving any change in the panorama, we turned to the ILO to make
these facts known internationally and to prevent a return to slavery,''
said Muñoz.
The groups asked the ILO to pressure the Chilean government to recognize
and implement rules and practices in agricultural labor based on
social justice and internationally established human and labor rights.
According to Muñoz, Somavía reacted with surprise to the denunciations,
and proposed a dialogue with the Chilean government, but did not
commit himself to anything specific.
The head of the Chilean Labor Directorate, Cristián Alviz, said
in a conversation with Tierramérica that the charges come as a bit
of a shock because ''along with transportation and commerce, agricultural
labor is the sector most closely monitored by our agency.''
''During the 2003-2004 growing season we attended to denunciations
that involved 90,000 workers, and we hope to expand coverage to
100,000 this year,'' said Alviz, adding that he thinks it impossible
to monitor every farm operation in the country.
''The Labor Directorate has very good intentions, but that isn't
enough. More resources are needed for more monitoring because the
laws that have been made so far to protect farm workers are not
being obeyed,'' RAP-AL regional coordinator María Elena Rosas told
a local press conference.
According to Muñoz, a commission set up in 2002 to handle these
issues, and made up of government, employer and worker representatives,
has not been able to put an end to the continued widespread violation
of labor rights.
''I am guided by the words of President Ricardo Lagos himself, who
said in my presence that we cannot hold our heads high in the world
at the cost of sacrificing our workers,'' said the activist.
* Daniela Estrada is a Tierramérica contributor.
|
