Fair Flowers on Mother’s Day!

“Especially on Mother`s Day everyone should only buy fair produced flowers,” says Steffi Neumann from Vamos e.V. Münster, Germany. Marketa Novotna from Ecumenical Academy Prague, Czech Republic explains: “Approximately 200.000 workers are employed by the flower industry around the equator e.g. in Kenia, Uganda, Colombia, Ecuador; 70% of them are women. Drilling, weeding, tending of plants, cutting and grading are women’s work in the flower industry.”

Living and working conditions of flower workers who produce cut flowers in countries around the equator are very precarious. International recognized human and workers rights are often violated: low wages neither provide a proper living, the rights to organise and collective bargaining, nor the right to occupational health and safety, as they are violated by the flower farms. Especially women have to suffer sexual assaults by male supervisors. Many of them are single mothers.

“Female workers face a double burden” mentions Sophie Vessel from FIAN Austria. “They are often the sole breadwinner of their families. In high season – e.g. for Mother`s Day – they have to work up to 16 hours a day. After work they have to take care of their children and the household.” Gertrud Falk from FIAN Germany adds: “Due to the low income many of the workers’ children have to work to support their families.”

“The Flower Label Program (FLP) and Fairtrade are two labels which guarantee the compliance of workers rights in the flower production. Everyone should ask his or her flower trader for fair produced flowers! Therefore you contribute to better living and working conditions of the mothers who work in the greenhouses!” explains Barbara Janssens from Netwerk Bewust Verbuiken, Belgium. “Flowers are to give pleasure – both, to mothers in the North and the South!” agrees Stephanie Lécharlier from FIAN Belgium.

More info: www.flowers-for-human-rights.org