Agricultural Workers

The campaign against land grabs escalated across Myanmar following the resolution of the First Congress of the Agriculture and Farmers' Federation of Myanmar (AFFM-IUF) giving priority to land rights and access to land as integral to winning food rights and a sustainable food system. 

The First Congress of the IUF-affiliated Agriculture and Farmers’ Federation of Myanmar (AFFM) denounced the serious threat to the livelihoods of small farmers and agricultural workers caused by land grabs by government authorities, the military and corporations. Several farmers, including AFFM members, are imprisoned for attempting to return to their land.

Top law school report documents "sub-standard housing, acute hazards in sanitation and denial of statutory benefits" on Tata's tea plantations in Assam, India.

The unions at Dutch flower auction FloraHolland suspended their strike on February 12 when the company finally agreed to negotiate on their demands. The negotiations followed a mass march by the strikers to the company's head office. The details will be finalized and members will vote on the agreement next week.

Agricultural workers across Bangladesh conducted rolling strikes for five days to demand an end to precarious employment as well as improved retirement benefits, paid leave and maternity rights.

As part of the Regional Framework Agreement with Chiquita, the IUF and COLSIBA have signed a new appendix which commits all three to ”developing a joint understanding on sexual harassment, so that this kind of harassment will not be tolerated in the workplace”.

There is also a provision to work on “training strategies and sharing examples of good practice” and recognition that “every workplace must take necessary measures to ensure men and women workers have access to information about their rights in the workplace”.

UN special rapporteur, Olivier de Schutter, has called on the Malawian government to give “serious consideration ..to the intrinsic relationship between wages and the right to adequate food”  and to take steps to adapt the “absurdly low” national minimum wage to a living wage. He also called for collective bargaining to be applied in particular in tea, and for the right to organize to be respected.

The Ministry if Labour has now confirmed that, despite management threats and harassment, the majority of sugar mill workers have voted for strike action in support of demands for higher wages.

After 70 days of tough negotiations and preparations for a strike, the IUF's Colombian agricultural workers' affiliate signed an industry-wide agreement on June 19 which brings important gains for 18,000 banana workers and their families.

After two months of fruitless negotiations, SINTRAINAGRO, the IUF-affiliated agricultural workers union of Colombia, has announced that its members are ready to strike in response to a proposal from the employers to reduce wages by up to 43% and to cut social benefits.18,000 workers are expected to join the strike.

To mark Workers’ Memorial Day, the IUF is renewing its call for a global ban on paraquat, a highly hazardous herbicide, with no antidote, responsible for deaths and severe injuries to agricultural workers, farmers and rural communities worldwide.