Flower Worker Rights

Report Released Exposing Poor Working Conditions on Flower Plantations

February 2007: Worker rights groups today released Valentine's Day Report: Worker Justice and Basic Rights on Flower Plantations in Colombia and Ecuador, finding that flower workers in the region earn poverty-level wages, labor long hours, and suffer significant health problems due to over-exposure to harmful pesticides.

Workers at two Dole plantations are celebrating today after signing contracts on the Splendor and La Fragancia plantations last week.

When a small union formed at the Bochica Farms plantation in La Ceja, Antioquia in January of 2007, workers immediately began to receive death threats.

Getting permission to use the restroom at the La Fragancia flower plantation in Colombia “is like winning the lottery,” according to Dora Acero, the Secretary of Education for the union at the