Classed as essential workers due to the pandemic, agricultural and food workers, many of them migrant workers, have continued to work - or risk losing their jobs - on farms and plantations, and in meat and food processing plants to provide essential food supplies to people worldwide.
On March 25 the IUF-affiliated SINTRAINAGRO in Colombia negotiated an agreement covering 22,000 banana workers on comprehensive measures to mitigate the risk of COVID-19 infection. The union has produced a series of short videos demonstrating the safety procedures, which are being implemented and monitored by union representatives together with the employers and public authorities.
The IUF-affiliated agrifood union FLAI-CGIL, together with numerous civil society organizations, has called on the government to take immediate measures to safeguard the health and safety of the thousands of irregular migrant workers and asylum-seekers living in the country.
Uganda's Horticultural, Industrial, Service Providers and Allied Workers' Union (UHISPAWU) is fighting to protect thousands of workers on flower farms from falling into poverty and hunger as a consequence of the overnight collapse of the export market. Sales of cut flowers, the bulk of which are exported to Europe for auction, have declined by up to 90 percent and there are no government protection programs for workers in agriculture who lose their jobs.
On March 31, the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the United Nations' World Health Organization (WHO) and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) jointly called for coordinated international action to keep international food supplies flowing across borders in the COVID-19 crisis - including the unimpeded flow of the migrant workers who sustain global agriculture. The IUF has written these bodies to highlight a supremely irresponsible defect in their appeal for "responsibility": the total absence of advocacy for action to protect the lives, safety and livelihoods of the agricultural workers on whose labour food security depends.
The rural workers' union SINTRAINAGRO has negotiated comprehensive COVID-19 support and health and safety protection measures for some 22,000 banana workers in an agreement signed on March 25 with the industry association Augura, representing national and transnational producers. The union insisted on the safety measures when the government decreed a partial country-wide lockdown which exempted many economic sectors, including agriculture.
The International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Associations (IUF) is an international federation of trade unions representing workers employed in agriculture and plantations; the preparation and manufacture of food and beverages; hotels, restaurants and catering services; all stages of tobacco processing. The IUF is composed of 425 affiliated trade unions in 127 countries representing over 10 million workers.
How to contact the IUF:
Email: [email protected]
Post: Rampe du Pont-Rouge, 8, CH-1213, Petit-Lancy (Switzerland)
Phone: + 41 22 793 22 33
Fax: + 41 22 793 22 38
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How to contact the IUF:
Email: [email protected]
Post: Rampe du Pont-Rouge, 8, CH-1213, Petit-Lancy (Switzerland)
Phone: + 41 22 793 22 33
Fax: + 41 22 793 22 38
Login