Fair flowers, fair working conditions [2501]

Country/ Region	Regional
Countries of regional project	Ethiopia, Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe
Project Period	2006-2007 (pilot year)
Partners and target groups	International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Associations (IUF), and its member unions in the project countries, Finnish Service Union United (PAM), Finnish Wood and Allied Workers' Union.
Background and justification	The cultivation of flowers, mainly for the European market, is expanding rapidly in African countries. It employs hundreds of thousands of people, especially young women, and provides poor countries with much-needed export revenues. The costs are the increasing environmental risks and social problems, which are addressed with more efficient control and certification systems. The flowers cultivated in African plantations are also imported to Finland. Already for several years, SASK has, with its Finnish member unions and the sector's international union, the IUF, prepared a joint project, the intention of which is to improve the working conditions in flower plantations situated in developing countries. In 2004, SASK commissioned a baseline study, which accumulates information on the production, markets and distribution routes of cultivated flowers, as well as the working conditions in flower plantations in developing countries. According to the study, workers' basic rights, as well as the rules on minimum wages and occupational health and safety, are commonly broken in flower plantations in developing countries. The baseline study has been used for several newspaper articles and campaign material in Finland.
Objectives	In 2005, the IUF joined the international cooperation network Fair Flowers, Fair Plants (FFP), which aims to set a global standard in the sector. Flower producers, intermediaries, trade unions and NGOs all participate in the FFP network. The IUF project, which SASK supports, operates within the network and aims to, with the trade union movement playing an active role, guarantee that the network has sufficient knowledge about labour rights.
Project activities	The country-specific reports on the working conditions in cut flower production in all the project countries are the basis for considering the special circumstances of different countries and unions during the actual project period. Country-specific reports partly make use of resources from researchers from national central organisations and research institutes close to the trade union movement, but the main work will be carried out by union members themselves. This also provides an opportunity to increase the unions’ research capacity. The reports provide a basis for unions to formulate efficient strategies to influence the conditions in flower farms. At the end of 2007 the background report material will be available and form the basis for the commencement of work plans for the coming years.