Night is falling rapidly, and even though Bogotá, Colombia’s largest city, is no place to travel across in the dark when you’re a newly-arrived foreigner, I linger. The urgency in the voices around me – mostly young single mothers – is palpable. Their words jostle each other as they spill out one more story about their difficult lives as flower workers. Even though families beckon and our time together eats into precious time off before yet another U.S. holiday pushes many of them into forced overtime, the stories they have to tell hold them there.
We’re in the modest headquarters of Untraflores, the union that flower workers pieced together ten years ago despite enormous odds. With only 400 mostly female members spread thinly on farms west of Bogota, the organization struggles every day to survive. As union affiliation in Colombia is individual, in many companies, only 10% of the eligible workers are signed up. This problem is compounded by the fact that as many as half are temporary, sent home before any benefits must be paid.
It’s particularly hard for women. Untraflores union head Aide Silva explains, “Men make more money than we do. And, we women, especially younger ones, have to be careful not to get caught alone in the greenhouses because of the widespread sexual abuse. Discrimination against women is fierce and workers don’t know their rights,”
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