Agricultural Workers

Agriculture is by far the biggest user of water. Five years ago, in 2010, the United Nations General Assembly recognized the universal right to safe drinking water and sanitation and linked it to the human right to food. ILO Conventions affirm the obligation of states and employers to ensure that agricultural workers have adequate access to safe drinking water and sanitation. Despite this, millions of agricultural workers lack access to safe water at work and in their homes and die every year as a result.   

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has produced a shocking report on working conditions on Assam's tea estates, which provide tea for many of the world's leading companies

The BBC report was highly critical of the Rainforest Alliance, which certifies large parts of the tea industry for global companies like Tata and Unilever

The National Union of Workers (NUW) is holding Australia's largest supermarket chains accountable for human rights abuses in their supply chains. The Fair Food Australia campaign calls for union access to farms and factories to ensure compliance with labour standards and adequate worker protection. The campaign follows the publication of a report by the Fair Work Ombudsman documenting criminal exploitation of migrant workers by labour contractors supplying Baiada, Australia's largest poultry processor.

To mark the World Day Against Child Labour on June 12, members of the International Partnership for Cooperation on Child Labour in Agriculture which includes the IUF, have launched a joint website (only in English so far) to bring together information and news on elimination of child labour in the sector.

"Inequitable labour relations and distribution of benefits… severe socio-economic disadvantage.. insanitary living conditions" are among the problems highlighted in Giving a voice to rural workers, one of the reports currently under discussion at this year's International Labour Conference (ILC).

On May 24 the IUF-affiliated Agriculture and Farmers Federation of Myanmar (AFFM) and Food Allied Workers became the first national union federation representing agricultural and plantation workers and farmers to be recognized in Myanmar.

Agricultural workers and farmers from nine states/regions in Myanmar participated in a two-day IUF training seminar on herbicides, focusing on paraquat and glyphosate. Members of the IUF-affiliated AFFM studied the severe harm paraquat causes to health and the environment. Paraquat - often sold in containers labelled only in Thai and Chinese - is used extensively in Myanmar on major food crops.

The UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and hazardous substances has said he is
"deeply troubled" by obstacles to the listing of asbestos and paraquat under the Rotterdam Convention.

To mark Workers Memorial Day, the IUF has produced with Pesticides Action Network (PAN) and the Swiss-based NGO, Berne Declaration, a report on the use of paraquat in India.  While this highly toxic pesticide is banned in Europe, it continues to be widely used on many crops and in many parts of the world.  The report confirms that paraquat is used under high-risk conditions and that users don't have the information or the means to protect themselves from exposure. As a result, users suffer from headaches, vomiting, breathing difficulty, muscle pain and abdominal discomfort.

IUF affiliates representing palm oil plantation workers in Asia, Africa and Latin America met in Bogota on March 12 and 13, 2015 to develop a strategy and work plan for IUF activities in the sector.

The IUF-affiliated SINTRAINAGRO has won direct, permanent contracts for cane cutters at the Risaralda mill in western Colombia's Cauca Valley. The breakthrough agreement was signed on March 5 following a brutal attack on strikers by state anti-riot forces and company guards.

On February 24 gunmen fired on a car carrying Guillermo Rivera and Medardo Cuesta, president and treasurer, respectively, of the Colombian rural workers union SINTRAINAGRO, as they were meeting with members in the western department Valle del Cauca.