The Coalition of Agricultural Workers International (CAWI) joins the billions of workers worldwide in commemorating International Labor Day today.

We mark this day with profound disquiet over the worsening conditions of agricultural workers amid the simultaneous and inter-connected adversities brought about by the economic crisis, pandemic, wars and conflicts, and climate change. Nonetheless, we also celebrate this momentous date in the history of the global labor movement as a reminder that the only way out of our misery and exploitation is through our collective strength and struggle.

Agricultural workers are among the hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic and yet are among the most ignored by state institutions. Evidence suggests that areas with more agricultural workers, including migrant workers, have higher COVID-19 infections and fatalities in rich countries like the US. The situation is undoubtedly much worse in developing countries where the monitoring of such cases is far less reliable.

The pandemic’s health hazards inflicted on agricultural workers multiply the already numerous risks that the workers face. Agricultural work is one of the world’s most dangerous occupations, with workers running twice the risk of dying on the job than those in the other sectors. They are constantly exposed to toxic pesticides. According to a Pesticide Action Network (PAN) study, about 860 million farmers and agricultural workers are poisoned every year.

Underlying these occupational hazards and COVID-19 vulnerabilities are agricultural workers’ long-term oppression and exploitation. They are highly underpaid, receiving as low as US$3 a day in slave wages. Workers in the sector are sometimes even legally excluded from minimum wage laws. According to an International Labor Organization (ILO) report, as of 2020, an estimated 18% of countries with statutory minimum wages exclude either agricultural workers, domestic workers, or both from minimum wage regulations. The high level of informal employment in agriculture also makes it challenging to enforce minimum wage laws and other labor rights and welfare, even if they cover agricultural workers.

While grossly underpaid, agricultural workers also face severe job insecurity. The incidence of temporary employment, such as among seasonal and casual agricultural workers, is the highest in agriculture among the major economic sectors. According to the ILO, temporary workers account for almost 51% of the total employment in agriculture.

With starvation wages and insecure jobs, it is not a surprise that agricultural workers are among the poorest of the poor. The UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, in a 2018 report, described agricultural workers as among the world’s most hungry, a situation aggravated by rising global prices of food and fuel amid the pandemic and conflicts. The Russia-Ukraine conflict, for example, is further driving up food prices that were already at their highest levels in the last 47 years, even before the war. In 2021, food prices ballooned by a massive 26% – the highest annual growth rate in the past three decades, which means more lack of food and nutrition for the 2.4 billion people worldwide, including agricultural workers and their families, who suffer food insecurity.

The situation is even extra brutal for migrant and women agricultural workers, who suffer greater oppression and exploitation due to their social status. In developed countries where immigrants comprise a majority of agricultural workers, many are undocumented and thus, do not have legal protection for their rights, including access to COVID-19 testing in the pandemic era, which is available to other workers. Indeed, even before the pandemic, migrant workers in agriculture already suffer tremendous discrimination in pay, social protection, housing, medical care, and other labor rights. Additionally, women agricultural workers, including migrants, face gender-based violence and sexual harassment, discrimination, and exclusion from social protection such as access to sexual and reproductive health facilities.

Another particularly vulnerable sector is children. According to data, seven out of every ten children in child labor are in agriculture. They form part of unpaid family work in the rural economy and are exposed to the same occupational hazards as their parents. Children are more in danger of pesticide poisoning, which has more significant and lasting impacts on their health and well-being, and other risks present in working on plantations or commercial farms.

Finally, agricultural workers, together with farmers, are among the biggest victims of political repression in the context of land-related conflicts in rural areas. Based on PAN Asia Pacific (PANAP) monitoring, around 230 farmers and farm workers were killed from January 2017 to March 2022. About 1,155 were arrested or detained, while some 426 were harassed or physically assaulted. Behind these human rights abuses are state forces and private corporations.

But despite this bleak situation, agricultural workers worldwide continue to organize and mobilize to defend their rights and demand accountability for the abuses they suffer.

Agricultural unions and collective bargaining continue to be pillars of workers’ rights as an effective means to forward demands. The ability of agricultural workers to form demands across their line of work is among the principal instruments of their industrial relations, allowing them to secure better conditions, benefits, and institutional protection. They also maximize all available platforms to push for their rights and welfare, including at the global level, especially when domestic conditions are so restrictive and unfavorable.

For instance, a complaint filed by Philippine-based groups Union of Agricultural Workers (UMA) and National Federation of Sugar Workers (NFSW) on agricultural workers’ rights abuses, union-busting, and legal persecution was accepted by the International Labor Organization in 2021, prompting discussions on the investigation of the Philippine national government’s role on human rights abuses on activists and unionists.

The might of agricultural workers’ undaunted collective action was displayed in India, where over 250 million farmers and farmworkers participated in a year-long protest to oppose three contentious national farm laws. The laws, decried as profit-seeking and exploitative, were eventually announced to be repealed by India’s Prime Minister due to the unwavering resistance of farm unions.

Indeed, there is hope in our collective strength and struggle.

Thus, we call on all agricultural workers and all working peoples to remain determined in our fight for better working conditions, social justice, and a world without oppression and exploitation. Despite all the hardships and worsening repression, let us mark International Labor Day with this unwavering commitment.

Long live the agricultural workers!

Long live the working peoples of the world!

Reference: P.P. Sivapragasam, Secretary General (secretariat@agriworkers.org)