Organizing Women Workers in the Informal Economy

Beyond the Weapons of the Weak

Naila Kabeer, Ratna Sudarshan, Kirsty Milward, Naila Kabeer, Ratna Sudarshan, Kirsty Milward

• Publisher: Zed Books
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781780324548
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Labour & Industrial Relations
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Women as a group have often been divided by a number of intersecting inequalities: class, race, ethnicity, caste. As individuals - often isolated in reproductive or other home-based work - their weapons of resistance have tended to be restricted to the traditional weapons of the weak: hidden subversions and individualised struggles. Organizing Women Workers in the Informal Economy explores the emergence of an alternative repertoire among women working in the growing informal sectors of the global South: the weapons of organization and mobilization. This crucial book offers vibrant accounts of how women working as farm workers, sex workers, domestic workers, waste pickers, fisheries workers and migrant factory workers have organized for collective action. What gives these precarious workers the impetus and courage to take up these steps? What resources do they draw on in order to transcend their structurally disadvantaged position within the economy? And what continues to hamper their efforts to gain social recognition for themselves as women, as workers and as citizens? With first-hand accounts from authors closely involved in emerging organizations, this collection documents how women workers have come together to carve out new identities for themselves, define what matters to them, and develop collective strategies of resistance and struggle.

1

Women and Rural Trade Unions in North-East Brazil¹

---

Ben Selwyn

In recent years globalization has made capital increasingly mobile, bringing opportunities for firms to seek out cheap labour wherever it may be found. In discussions of the implications of this situation, it is often assumed, or concluded, that labour is at a greater disadvantage in the current situation than it was prior to globalization because of its relative immobility. For women workers – a significant group in many of these new, globalized production processes – this disadvantage may be compounded by the difficulties they face in achieving adequate representation through trade unions – iconic symbols of worker struggle and power, but usually built and managed around a male breadwinner model which presents many challenges for women.

One form of increasing capital mobility is the unfolding retail revolution (Reardon et al. 2001; Humphrey 2007) occurring over the last quarter-century, first in the global North and now, increasingly in the global South, and involving new technologies, production systems and supply chains connecting geographically distant producers with economically powerful northern supermarkets. This revolution involves not just increasingly wide global sourcing, but also the setting/imposition of ever-stricter requirements on producers (Dolan and Humphrey 2000). In tandem with the expansion of non-traditional agricultural exports to supply global retailers, the ‘feminization of agriculture’ has been documented widely. Simply put, this refers to a situation where there is an absolute increase in women’s participation in the agricultural wage labour force and/or where there is an increase in the percentage of women workers relative to men in the sector (Deere 2005: 17; Katz 2003: 33). The double subordination of women workers (as workers and as women) is often observed in globalized export agriculture. Hence, Raynolds argues that ‘employers manipulate gender ideologies and institutions to depress wages, to increase labour discipline, and to maximize labour extraction from both women and men’ (2001: 25). And ‘women are seen as an apt group for the implementation of flexible and precarious kinds of work, given their higher levels of socioeconomic vulnerability’ (Spulveda, quoted in Ferm 2008: 23).

Whilst there are numerous cases where women workers experience such a regressive double marginalization (Thrupp 1995; Deere 2005), it is also important to investigate cases where gendered working practices have given rise to more complicated and, possibly, more progressive outcomes. This chapter takes the case of women workers in export horticulture in north-east Brazil to explore what these new sites might sometimes offer women workers, and whether they have been able to increase their bargaining power. The study looks at the context in which the rural trade union was operating, the ways in which women workers have engaged with the union, and the extent to which they have won benefits as workers through this engagement.

In the São Francisco Valley’s export horticulture (specifically table grape) sector, by 2008 there were around 120,000 irrigated hectares of fruiticulture (VALEXPORT 2008). By the mid-2000s, table grapes had become the region’s principal export crop; between 1997 and 2007 export volumes and earnings increased from 3,700 tons and US$4.7 million to over 78,000 tons and over US$170 million (ibid.). Half-way through the first decade, there were more than 50,000 workers employed in the grape sector alone.² Production has expanded rapidly, from approximately 4,500 hectares of vineyards in 2001 to around 12,100 hectares by 2007 (Selwyn 2007b; VALEXPORT 2008). The valley accounts for over 90 per cent of Brazilian grape exports (ibid.) because it is able to organize production to take advantage of periods of low supply in Europe. National and international capital has located and relocated to the region to take advantage of the boom (Selwyn 2010a).

The chapter is structured as follows: the following section places this case study in the broader Brazilian context. The next sections explain the reasons for and extent of women’s employment in the São Francisco Valley, documenting how women have become increasingly active in the valley’s rural trade union and how this, in turn, has resulted in important changes both within the trade union and to women’s working conditions in the grape sector. The final section offers some preliminary conclusions to this study.

Methodology

Too often academic literature conceptualizes labour as if it were simply an input or a cost of production (to be reduced), but it is important to resist this approach. Kabeer notes, in her study of women workers in Bangladesh:

Allowing women’s own accounts to inform an analysis … has the advantage of including a set of ‘voices’ which are often missing from both policy and academic discussions … the ‘subjective’ insights provided. offer a valuable tool for interpreting the more ‘objective’ hypotheses formulated by researchers and policymakers. (1999: 262)

The account that follows is based on research conducted along the São Francisco Valley, in the states of Pernambuco and Bahia, north-east Brazil, in the summer of 2008. I recorded open-ended, semi-structured interviews in Portuguese with women workers on farms and at the trade union headquarters in Petrolina (Pernambuco). The open-ended approach enabled interviewees to introduce issues that they thought relevant, even if they were not part of my list of questions.

Women in Brazilian agriculture: the broader context

This chapter, whilst concentrating on women in the São Francisco Valley in the interior of the Brazilian north-east, exists within a broader national (and of course international) context. As Deere and León (2001) note, in most countries the achievement of progressive, pro-women legislation has often depended on the participation of women in social movements organized to achieve such legislation and regulation. In the Brazilian context the crucial decade for rural women was the 1980s.

The 1964 coup, following elite fears of lack of strategic direction by state planners (Kohli 2004) and of unrest in both urban and rural settings, ushered in 21 years of military dictatorship (Cardoso 2001) and derailed attempts by the peasant leagues, communist parties and other organizations to advance the cause of land reform and enhanced livelihoods for the masses of Brazil’s rural dwellers. Political decompression (Cummings 1989), driven in part by major industrial unrest in and around São Paulo (which gave rise to the formation of the workers’ party) created space for new rural social movements to begin, once again, campaigning for rural justice. Whilst the academic focus has been on issues surrounding agrarian reform, and in particular the activities of the Landless Labourers Movement (MST), Deere (2003) also notes that the 1980s witnessed the beginnings of heightened participation by women within rural trade unions.³

During the military dictatorship, rural trade unions were organized within CONTAG (Confederação Nacional dos Trabal-hadores na Agricultura), which, whilst prevented by the military from campaigning for agrarian reform, provided its members with services such as pensions and health care. Cappellin (1997) notes how, during the 1970s, the Comissão Pastoral da Terra (CPT) played an important role in raising the consciousness of rural women, who went on to question social injustices. However, Deere (2003: 263), following Siqueira (1991) notes how, in the 1980s, ‘The rural women’s movement developed around two central demands: the incorporation of women into the unions and the extension of social security benefits, including paid maternity leave and retirement, to rural women workers.’ The context within which these demands emerged added to their potentially radical content because many local trade unions were male-dominated and unconcerned with rural women’s welfare or their potential role in their organizations. Deere recounts how in the north-eastern states of Paraíba, union leaders argued that women were not rural workers, and that as dependants of their husbands they had no need to join the union because they already had guaranteed benefits.

This ignorance of rural women’s welfare and participation was challenged from the mid-1980s onwards, with male trade union leaders and representatives within CONTAG emphasizing the need to increase female membership. Subsequently, CONTAG began instructing its local-level affiliates to encourage women’s participation and train women for positions of leadership. Deere (2003: 264–5) explains this shift by CONTAG with reference to the ‘new unionism’ of the more militant CUT union (Central Unica dos Trabalhadores). Indeed, in the mid-1990s CONTAG affiliated to CUT, itself founded in 1983 out of the wave of struggle against the military dictatorship. This continued a process of reorientation of regional rural trade unions previously accustomed to acting as effective welfare networks. In addition, the increasingly large and influential MST was campaigning for extensive agrarian reform, keeping rural issues close to the centre of the Brazilian political agenda.

By 1987 women represented around 29 per cent of the membership of the trade unions affiliated to CONTAG (ibid.). Campaigning by trade unions, in the context of a newly established civilian government keen to legitimate itself by distinguishing its actions from those of the prior dictatorship, contributed to the 1988 constitution, subject to enabling presidential legislation. The constitution established equal rights for urban and rural men and women with respect to social security benefits and labour legislation. The benefits included rights to unemployment and disability insurance, and 120 days of paid maternity leave for women.

The election of Collor as President in 1989 dampened the potentially progressive impacts of this constitution, as in 1991 he vetoed the legislation for paid maternity leave for women in family agriculture, which in turn encouraged employers of rural wage labourers to ignore the broader legislation as well. However, as Deere notes (ibid.: 268), ‘Since attaining effective social security rights was an issue that united more rural women (whether temporary or permanent wage workers, landless or in the family farming regime), it is not surprising that these rights would constitute the most important arena of struggle for the rural women’s movement in subsequent years ….’

Not only did subsequent rural social movements campaign around these issues, but Siqueira (1991) notes how, within the context of a rising feminist discourse, issues such as women’s sexual freedoms also became prominent within the rural trade unions’ agenda. In 1991, a major campaign was launched by numerous social movements, including CUT, to better the position of women in agriculture. A range of demands included (1) overturning Collor’s veto of paid maternity leave; (2) that state benefits be provided immediately to rural workers; and (3) that women workers be provided with child-care centres and integrated health care. The campaign also highlighted the prevalence of violence against rural women. In 1993, as part of its agenda to incorporate women into its organization, CUT adopted a quota system whereby 30 per cent of national, regional and state trade union leaders would be women.

The trade unions’ campaigns for rural women’s welfare continued into the 1990s, including raising awareness of the prevalence of the use of unregistered women workers who were thus ineligible for the state benefits. The campaign for the registration of women workers was carried out under the slogan, ‘To have personal documents and those of workers is but one step in the conquest of our citizenship’ (cited in Deere 2003: 276). In 2000, CONTAG launched a series of events across Brazil in association with the celebration of International Women’s Day. These events included the Marcha das Margaridas on 10 August, the anniversary of the murder of north-eastern trade union leader Margarida Alves. This march is now a regular occasion when thousands of rural women descend on Brasilia to demand rural justice through an end to rural poverty, hunger and violence. These issues were raised and supported by vigorous campaigns by rural trade unions from the late 1980s onwards. The following discussions illustrate the particular forms of representation, participation and mobilization of women workers in Brazil’s São Francisco Valley.

Women workers in the São Francisco Valley grape sector

The principal trade union in the São Francisco Valley is the Sindicato dos Trabalhadores Rurais (STR, Rural Workers’ Union). This union, and the increasing importance of women workers and trade union representatives, are discussed in detail below. First, this section provides an overview of the grape sector in which the majority of women workers in the valley are employed. Within the grape sector women comprise the overwhelming majority of the labour force. They are employed, increasingly, on temporary contracts. While during the mid-to late 1990s women comprised the majority of permanently employed workers, by the early 2000s they made up only between 40 and 50 per cent (Selwyn 2010b). This is still significantly more than in other world regions of grape production. For example, Barrientos (2001: 86) shows that in Chile and South Africa women comprise 5 per cent and 26 per cent of th...

Table of contents

• Cover
• About the Editors
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Preface
• Introduction Beyond the Weapons of the Weak: Organizing Women Workers in the Informal Economy
• 1 Women and Rural Trade Unions in North-East Brazil
• 2 Understanding the Dynamics of an NGO/MBO Partnership: Organizing and Working with Farm Women in South Africa
• 3 Organizing for Life and Livelihoods in the Mountains of Uttarakhand: The Experience of Uttarakhand Mahila Parishad
• 4 Negotiating Patriarchies: Women Fisheries Workers Build SNEHA in Tamil Nadu
• 5 ‘If You Don’t See a Light in the Darkness, You Must Light a Fire’: Brazilian Domestic Workers’ Struggle for Rights
• 6 The Challenge of Organizing Domestic Workers in Bangalore: Caste, Gender and Employer-Employee Relations in the Informal Economy
• 7 Power at the Bottom of the Heap: Organizing Waste Pickers in Pune
• 8 Sex, Work and Citizenship: The VAMP Sex Workers’ Collective in Maharashtra
• 9 Gender, Ethnicity and the Illegal ‘Other’: Women from Burma Organizing Women across Borders
• Endnote Looking Back on Four Decades of Organizing: The Experience of SEWA
• About the Contributors
• Index