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Multiple forms
of slavery: Women working from home:
1. Brief
description of women working from homeThe Case of Santo Tomas, El Salvador Montserrat Arevalo Coordinator of “Mujeres Transformando” - - - - - - - - - 2. Description of the work they do and the conditions under which they do it The conditions under which these women work are a clear example of the multiple forms of slavery in which they live; on the one hand the companies sell them the fallacy that this type of work allows them to take care of their families and their homes while obtaining an income; in reality these women must work during the night, after they have completed their domestic work and their families are already sleeping and they do not need them anymore. This implies that they literally start loosing their sight during those long night working hours, which are not paid as such. The type of work they do is very elaborate hand embroidery that must be inserted into dresses and other clothes that are later exported mainly to the US and to Colombia. In average women spend 5 hours to do an embroidered piece, and for each piece they are paid between USD 1.75 and USD 2; the dress to which this piece is inserted is sold at USD 70 to USD 150, depending on the size and the design, but it is the piece prepared by the women workers that gives value to the dresses. In order to reach an income of USD 35 per week these women must do an average of 20 pieces of embroidery, which represent a working day of more than 10 hours in order to obtain two pieces a day; at the same time they have to cook, do laundry, iron, clean the house, collect their children from school, help them with their homework, look after the husband, take care of the children, and so on. Is it not one form of slavery after another the life these women live? Is it not a perverse and inhumane logic to offer work under such totally unregulated conditions? Is it not equally inhumane that domestic work falls only on women? Factories impose their working conditions; they never tell the women how much they are going to pay them for a piece, it is only when the women hand in the work that they are told how much they will receive. They have no social security in spite of having their sight seriously affected; they are not paid for vacations or 13th salary and less of all compensation. The factory saves on electricity, water and the rent of a space as the women work from their houses, many times using candles as they do not have electricity. 3. Impact of this type of work at the economic and socio-emotional level, as well as in relation to the respect of the working rights of the women For Mujeres Transformando is important to talk about the social costs of labour flexibilization in the life of these women, and also to highlight the differences in these costs for women and for men. It is not by chance that embroidery work is done exclusively by women; in the whole world it is known that embroidery is traditionally a female task; jobs that, in spite of their high specialization, are not valued, are always assigned to us, women (they are not valued because they are done by women), and they generate precarious employment. It is because of the conditions of marginalization, exclusion and discrimination that women have faced historically that we are more vulnerable to labour flexibilization. This has a direct impact in the quality of life of people, and in the case of women is more evident. The labour duties under the conditions detailed above together with the family duties are like a time bomb for the integral health of the women workers. And in terms of sexual and reproductive rights there are other negative impacts, as these women who have no social security have no access to primary health care, nor to medical treatment, and here we are talking about the prevention and treatment of cancer of the breast and of the uterus, of pregnancy controls, of family planning, of STD and HIV/AIDS treatment, etc. But furthermore, given the fact that this type of work does not ensure women a pension, it is unclear what the future of these women will be when they cannot work anymore. We leave the answer for your consideration. 4. Alternatives: the work of organisation, training and advocacy done by Mujeres Transformando with the workers Facing this devastating situation, we see the organisation work for political advocacy as one of the most effective alternatives to counteract the various forms of slavery faced by women working from home. Our strategy as Mujeres Transformando is to form groups of women working at home, according to the communities where they live and to the location of the centres for the reception and handing in of the raw materials and the finalised work, which depend from the factories these women work for. Once the group has been formed we start with workshops on Labour Rights and Mental Health. In this way they acquire important knowledge and we also work on their self-esteem in order to empower them and help them develop a consciousness of the need to report the violations of their Human and Labour Rights. One of the lessons learnt is that knowing the rights is not a guarantee for exercising them and defending them. In a country like El Salvador, where there is no culture of denouncing and demanding the fulfilment of the laws, it is extremely necessary to promote processes of empowerment for civil society, and in this case in particular, empowerment of women. It has only been possible for these women to legally report the factories once they had developed a consciousness about being subjects of rights, and they have acquired the strength to face the employers not tolerating manipulations and threats. The great achievement is that these women are so empowered that they are willing to report the multiple violations they face and to demand the fulfilment of their rights. Another great achievement is that this has set precedence at national level because they are the first women working from home who have presented legal demands. No one before them had had the courage to do so.
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