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Valverde,
secretary of education at SINTRAINAGRO, is one of the union’s advisors in the
collective bargaining process for the palm sector in Colombia’s Cesar
Department.
-What is the
situation right now in the palm sector?
-It’s
complicated, and the outlook for the future is grim, as there are efforts to
impose Associated Work Cooperatives (CTAs) (a disguised outsourcing
system) in Cesar’s palm sector.
Workers in the
sector are well aware of this system’s disadvantages, so they’re highly
concerned.
This is
compounded by the fact that the palm sector is one of the industries where work
is most precarious in Colombia, with wages that are below the national
legal minimum.
-What actions
are being taken?
-On March 22 of
this year we presented the list of demands we had drafted, and on April 7 we
began negotiations, which have become very complicated. There have been meetings
with the national vice president, Angelino Garzón, and with the under
secretary of social protection. We’ll see what will come out of these meetings.
The business
owners are looking to lay the blame on SINTRAINAGRO, spreading the rumor
that it’s a radical organization. It’s all lies. We’ve just finished negotiating
a collective bargaining agreement in Urabá for 18,000 workers without having to
implement a single union measure. Our union is not looking for conflict. What we
want are solutions for our workers.
-They say that
wherever palm is planted abject poverty flourishes…
-Sadly, that’s
the bitter truth. Palm crops generate no jobs, and the little employment there
is in these plantations is under terrible conditions.
According to
data available, there’s one laborer per ten hectares of palm crops. That’s much
less than cattle raising, for example, which employs 3.5 workers per hectare.
Moreover, palm
workers are earning wages that are below the national legal minimum. Another
negative aspect of this sector is that workers are hired through outsourcing
schemes, which allow plantation owners to evade their responsibility as
employers and grant their workers social security benefits.
What’s more
surprising about this situation is that according to current data, palm crops
account for one third of Colombia’s gross domestic product. How can it
be, then, that the people who work in the sector are so neglected?
How can it be
that there isn’t even proper infrastructure in the sector? In Santander
Department, for example, producers lost 70 percent of their crops to pests, and
this happened because they lacked proper assistance.
-How is it that
wages are below the legal minimum?
-It’s due to
outsourcing. Workers are hired by contractors who provide companies with labor
and retain up to 70 percent of a worker’s pay.
-Is it true
that African palm is not a profitable crop for small producers?
-It’s true. A
small palm producer needs at least ten hectares for production to be
cost-efficient.
An oil
extracting plant is also essential in palm production, and not every producer
can afford that investment.
If they don’t
have their own processing plant, they have to sell their product to large
plantation owners, who do have their own plants, and they set the price small
producers are paid for their product, which is usually around 17 percent of the
actual value. So, small producers can barely get by.
But it’s not
like they have any other choice. It’s a vicious cycle that reproduces poverty
and destitution. And we can’t allow that model of production to be implemented
in Cesar.
-And what is
the government’s role in this?
-It’s doesn’t
exist. And it’s a very delicate issue. The government has to step in. It has the
obligation to do something about it because all workers have the right to earn a
decent wage that they can live on.
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