As borders close one after another, looming labour shortages in agriculture and the particularly vulnerable situation of agricultural workers everywhere spotlight the precarious foundations of food security and a major, but unexamined, challenge to containing the spread of the virus. To maintain food supplies while defending against the spread of the virus, governments and supra-national authorities need to take immediate action to protect the living and working conditions of the agricultural workers whose labour feeds the world.
Workers on North Carolina farms have been doubly victimized. Last year, members of the IUF-affiliated Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) working on tobacco, sweet potato and cucumber farms stood up to a labor contractor, denouncing abuses and seeking negotiations for a union agreement. As a consequence, the workers have not been paid and are now blacklisted.
The IUF and unions internationally are mobilizing to stop the judicial persecution of Honduran union leader Moisés Sanchéz, who faces up to 30 years' imprisonment on ludicrous charges in a courtroom on January 22. Sanchéz is general secretary of the sub-section of our affiliated agroindustrial union STAS on the melon farms of the transnational company Fyffes in Choluteca.
Action by the IUF-affiliated Hind Khet Mazdoor Panchayat has secured jobs for 570 agricultural workers in 4 villages in the state of Bihar’s Arariya District under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), boosting income and livelihoods for some 1,850 people including family members.
Trade unions are key to making workplaces safer and healthier for all workers but often women's occupational health and safety (OHS) is not given enough attention.
Neither the European Commission nor EU member states have formally challenged the ban on glyphosate adopted by Austria's parliament in July this year, paving the way for it to go into effect on January 1. Supported by a cross-party coalition in parliament, civil society, environmentalists, small farmer organizations and trade unions, including the IUF-affiliated PRO-GE, Austria becomes the first EU country to ban the world's most widely used herbicide, best known as Monsanto's 'Roundup'.
In July, the lower house of Austria's parliament voted to ban all uses of the toxic herbicide glyphosate. The legislation is scheduled to come into effect on January 1, 2020. But there's a hitch. Under EU regulations, the European Commission and Member States have until November 19 to 'comment' on the ban.
The IUF-affiliated Bangladesh Agricultural Farm Labour Federation (BAFLF) and National Women Farmers and Workers' Association (NWFA) jointly organized a public meeting at the National Press Club in Dhaka on 17 October 2019 to demand the government rescind its decision to authorize the commercial release of genetically-engineered 'Golden Rice'.
The IUF-affiliated SINTRAINAGRO has won significant gains for 22,000 banana workers in a new two-year collective agreement signed with the employer association Augura after months of tough negotiations. Members on September 4 overwhelmingly voted for strike action from September 12 in the event of failure to reach agreement.
Together with several small farmers and peasant organizations, the IUF-affiliated Bangladesh Agricultural Farm Labour Federation (BAFLF) and National Women Farmers and Workers Association (NWFA) escalated the fight to stop the commercial release of genetically-engineered "golden rice", following the announcement by the Minister of Agriculture that commercial growing will start "within three months".
On March 28, 2019, the Network in Support of Banning Dangerous Chemicals - a coalition of farmers, environmentalists, consumer groups, and local health officials - intensified the campaign to ban paraquat with a total of 48 villages in 6 sub-districts in Northeastern Thailand declared "paraquat free". As part of the global "Goodbye Paraquat!" campaign, the IUF joined a network of environmental, farmer and consumer organizations as well as teachers, health professionals and local government officials in July 2018, calling for a ban on paraquat in Thailand.
The campaign to stop glyphosate reauthorization in the European Union failed to ban glyphosate, but it succeeded brilliantly in exposing the agrochemical industry's grip on the regulatory agencies tasked with protecting public health and the environment. The campaign aftershocks continue.
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