69% of Colombia’s 130,000 flower workers are women. The majority are heads of households or single mothers. Most are hired on short-term contracts of three to six months, which are not renewed for workers who become pregnant or ill. The work has helped many escape poverty in the countryside but the competitive pressures of free trade continually make their situation worse.

“The company I worked for started pressuring us to extend our shifts and work longer – for free – supposedly in order to save the company from bankruptcy,” Gomez said. “They had changed the name of the company and were saying it was different but it was still the same owners. It’s a way to get rid of workers with occupational illnesses or more senior workers who have been with the company 18, 20, 25 years and who would otherwise be getting close to retiring and getting a pension.

“I really think that the flower industry is the clearest example of how the free trade agreements don’t help the workers,” said Leonardo Luna Alzate. “The Labor Action Plan hasn’t resulted in any improvement in the quality or quantity of jobs. If anything, the opposite."

The U.S. signed a bilateral trade agreement with Colombia in 2012. During negotiations labour and rights groups forced attention on Colombia’s abysmal human rights record, particularly worker’s rights. A blueprint for improvement called the Colombian Action Plan Related to Labor Rights, otherwise known as the Labor Action Plan, became part of the process. It was supposed to use the economic carrot of increased trade and economic development to force change.

“The flower sector is one of five sectors highlighted in that Labor Action Plan to look for improvements in workers rights and human rights and specific changes in the work environment,” said Elise Roberts, Upper Midwest Coordinator of Witness for Peace. She suggests little has changed.

Flowers are an important part of the trade relationship between the U.S. and Colombia and a very important part of Colombia’s economy. 76% of Colombian flowers are sold in the U.S. They’re the country’s fifth largest export product, netting $1.2 to $1.3 billion per year in profits. Yet as profitable as the industry is in Colombia, the real dollars are in the U.S.

Alzate suggested, “There’s a really clear supply-demand relationship between the U.S. and Colombia. Almost all flowers that leave Colombia come to the U.S. and almost all U.S. flowers come from Columbia.” “The largest profits that are made in the flower industry are not in the production at the local level in Colombia,” he said, “they’re in the distribution and the marketing of those flowers in the United States.”

Source: Hortibiz.com