Labor & Employment Law

Celebrate Valentine?s Day by Remembering Colombian Flower Workers

By James Parks

Take a minute this Valentine’s Day to send a gift to the women who cut and trimmed the flowers you give to your loved one. Six days a week, thousands of workers at flower plantations in Colombia cut and trim at least 350 flowers an hour. In the weeks before holidays like Mother’s Day and Valentine’s Day, the work extends deep into the night?all for about $8.25 a day, less than the cost of a bouquet of carnations in the United States.

You can help these women workers by making a donation to support the basic rights of flower workers in Colombia. The U.S. Labor Education in the Americas Project (USLEAP) has designed four beautiful Valentine’s Day e-cards, each featuring stories of struggle and victories and a photo of Colombian flower workers. In exchange for your contribution to USLEAP’s Flower Worker Economic Justice Campaign, your loved one will receive a Valentine’s Day e-card with a personalized message from you inside.

Select your favorite online e-card. Then enter the name and e-mail address for the recipient along with your personalized message and choose the size of gift that you want to give. The e-cards start at $10, are tax-deductible and can be sent to up to five friends!

More than 60 percent of the flowers sold in the United States come from Colombia. Two-thirds of the nearly 100,000 flower workers in Colombia are women, many working mothers. They often are required to work 12 to 15 hours a day with few breaks. Although they generally work long hours, the flower workers often are denied overtime pay and often are intimidated when they try to form unions. 

Your contribution will help flower workers build a movement that will provide a just and fair income to feed their family, a safe working environment that will improve their working conditions and the right to organize without fear of repression.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on February 14, 2010 (boomark / email).