Inequality Org.
Research & Commentary
Women made key gains in reducing gender discrimination and improving wages and working conditions in Morocco’s first-ever agricultural collective bargaining contract.
Wrapped in a warm pink headscarf and thick layers of sweaters and shirts, Nezha Chafik, a farm worker in Morocco, bends as she walks between the rows of peach trees, cutting clusters of weeds with her machete in the late April chill.
Since the Democratic Labor Confederation (CDT) negotiated an agreement in 2015 with Chafik’s employer, the agro-industrial company Les Domaines Brahim Zniber, workers receive better wages and have access to healthcare, a nurse-staffed clinic, improved job safety and ensured access to toilets and regular meal breaks. The agreement has now expanded from 1,000 agricultural workers to more than 1,200 workers on six large farms
“I was sick lately, and just imagine if I did not have the right to health coverage and the support of the trade union,” says Chafik. “I could have been fired or would have quit my job.”
And crucially, because women were at the negotiating table, they won maternity leave, time off to care for sick children and child education benefits. Women also helped negotiate equal access to jobs – ‘male’ jobs, like truck driving and tree pruning, from which they had been previously barred.
“The gap between male workers and female workers used to be huge,” says Hayat Khomssi, a farmworker at Zniber. “Women were not allowed to prune trees whereas men were able to do so. Men were also eligible for bonuses that weren’t granted to women, which made women feel inferior.
“But after we conducted protests, marches and sit-ins, and after the collective agreement, management held training for women to elevate them to management positions, they were allowed to prune and trim trees, and enjoy bonuses equal to men.” The workers tell their story in a new video produced by the international worker rights organization Solidarity Center titled Morocco Women Farm Workers Stand up for Their Rights.
