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Women’s Voices from Kenya

Women’s Voices from Kenya. Maggie Opondo University of Nairobi Department of Geography & Environmental Studies. Kenya’s Cut Flower Industry. Globalization’s success story Oldest and most successful in Africa 2 nd largest foreign exchange earner Employment (40,000-50,000)

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Women’s Voices from Kenya

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  1. Women’s Voices from Kenya Maggie Opondo University of Nairobi Department of Geography & Environmental Studies

  2. Kenya’s Cut Flower Industry • Globalization’s success story • Oldest and most successful in Africa • 2nd largest foreign exchange earner • Employment (40,000-50,000) • Feminized and flexible labor strategies • High levels of non-permanent work

  3. Female workers in a packhouse

  4. Power structures • Supply chain relationships – competition, buyer control, intense pressure • Pushing down the risks for volumes and prices buyers => suppliers/producers => workers • Climate of powerlessness and uncertainty • Precariously employed

  5. Limiting workers’ participation? • Insecure forms of employment (temporary, casual, migrant and seasonal) • Compulsory and excessive overtime “last year I had a baby and could even go back at midnight and the child’s health was really affected. There is a time I stayed for two days without my child because I would leave early in the morning and get back home very late at night”.

  6. Limiting workers’ participation? • Supervisor abuse “pregnancy is not in the hands but in the stomach” (Female workers imitate male supervisor deriding light duties for expectant mothers) • Health and safety “my baby refused to breastfeed because my milk was smelling of chemicals” (Breastfeeding mother)

  7. Limiting workers’ participation? • Restriction of reproductive rights “most of us here have abortions, even at eight months to avoid the risk of being sacked” (Female casual worker) • Sexual harassment “when a male supervisor seduces a female worker and this doesn’t bear fruit, he can use ‘thorax’ (i.e. job power to win that female worker” (Female worker)

  8. Limiting workers’ participation? • Living wage? “It is not enough at all. For housing I pay KSh 400, school fees are about KSh 500 per month, food about KSh 1500 , water about KSh 200, clothing about KSh 600, and sickness which varies and since the salary is about KSh 3000 per month, then I strain [to make ends meet] ” (Female worker)

  9. Empowering workers • Participatory social auditing effective in uncovering workplace issues & gender issues • Ensures authentic information and involves marginalized groups of workers • Builds trust and promotes dialogue, and expose workplace issues • Empowers workers

  10. In the struggle together? – civil society • NGOs increasingly visible – flower campaign • Trade union apathy “It is as if the union the unions just want money from us” • Role play Entire unionizable workforce sacked and replaced with new employees, without the union taking action • Gender committees in 2002 - one gender committee & in (2006) several • Transnational alliances of civil society organisations

  11. Do codes make a difference? • Gender relations • Globalization • North-south relations • CSR/Codes dictate who participates and whose voices count • Tackling structural issues to improve women workers working conditions

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