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NICARAGUA: Women Bear the Brunt of the Crisis
By José Adán
Silva
MANAGUA (IPS) - "Don’t worry, your job will be here
when you come back," Lorena Castillo’s supervisor reassured
her when she asked to take a day off for a gynaecologist
appointment. She had been working at the textile factory for
the past six months and it was the first time she asked for
a day off. It turned out to be her last.
The next day, Castillo was fired. The security guards at Las
Mercedes industrial park - a tax-free zone for
export-oriented assembly plants known as maquilas or
maquiladoras established in the Nicaraguan capital - stopped
her at the gate and handed her the pink slip.
She waited outside for hours for her supervisor to come out
at the end of the workday - the same supervisor who had
assured her that her fabric washing, ironing and dyeing job
would be there for her when she returned.
"There was nothing I could do," her supervisor explained
nervously when she finally came out. "They even fired 12
other girls because they thought they were pregnant."
That was in December 2008. A few months later, in March
2009, the company closed its doors and left another 900
textile machinery operators on the street, more than 85
percent of whom were women.
None of them received the severance pay and back wages they
were entitled to by law. So they formed a committee to
appeal to the leftist government of Sandinista leader Daniel
Ortega to force the maquila to fulfil its labour
obligations. To achieve this, the laid-off women are seeking
the intermediation of the pro-government Sandinista
Confederation of Workers.
Castillo, a 32-year-old mother of two, is one of the 27,000
workers who have been fired in the last three years by
companies operating in Zona Franca de Nicaragua, the
country’s tax-free industrial zone - a figure that is
expected to climb to at least 30,000 by the end of 2009,
Sandra Ramos, executive director of the non-governmental "María
Elena Cuadra" Movement of Working and Unemployed Women, told
IPS.
In April, a study conducted by the organisation, titled
"Employment Trends in Tax-Free Zone Textile and Garment
Companies in the Face of the Economic Crisis, and the Impact
on Women’s Lives", found that women workers in Nicaragua
were hardest hit by the global financial meltdown.
Between late 2006 and early 2009, 29 maquilas closed down
completely or suspended part of their activities, with more
than 25,000 jobs lost in the sector since 2008 alone.
Of that total, 85 percent of layoffs affected women, Ramos
explained. More significantly, 38 percent of the women who
lost their jobs were single mothers and nearly 70 percent
were heads of household.
Also in 85 percent of the cases, the laid-off women did not
receive any of the back pay or benefits due to them, and
even though their labour rights were violated, they have
been unable to obtain compensation through the proceedings
established by law for such cases, nor have labour
authorities forced their employers to live up to their
obligations.
The importance of maquilas
In this Central American nation, the textile industry
generates around 90,000 direct jobs and 10,000 indirect
jobs, accounting for 30 percent of employment in the formal
economy, according to the Labour Ministry and Corporación de
Zonas Francas, a private association that represents
corporate interests in the country’s tax-free zones.
These areas known as ‘free zones’ are industrial parks where
manufacturing plants enjoy special tax exemptions and
breaks, and which poor countries like Nicaragua have
promoted with the aim of drawing foreign investment.
The companies established under free-zone schemes are
typically from Asia or the United States and tend to employ
workers under unfavourable working conditions characterised
by low wages, exhausting hours, and violations of national
labour rights.
In Nicaragua, the maquilas are the largest generators of
jobs in the private sector, but they have also been the
leading source of complaints of violations of labour rights
and obligations since they set up shop in large numbers in
this country in 1991.
According to Ramos, 100,000 complaints have been filed over
the last five years. The abuse, she said, extends to human
rights in general, and is not limited to labour rights
violations. Companies are now using the crisis as an excuse
to get rid of pregnant women and workers suffering from any
health problems.
The global economic crisis has hit maquila production hard.
Exports from free zones represent 37 percent of the
country’s total sales abroad. During the first four months
of the year, free zones exported for a value of 243 million
dollars, 15 percent less than the same period in 2008.
Trade unionist Roberto González with the Sandinista
Confederation of Workers explained to IPS why the global
crisis has had such a harsh impact on the sector. "These
companies manufacture garments for major trademarks sold in
the U.S. market, and clothing demand in that country has
dropped 40 percent due to the plunge in consumer spending,"
she explained.
And the crisis is not easing. Four more maquilas are
threatening to suspend their activities before the end of
the year, leaving another 8,500 workers out of a job.
According to government estimates, around 29,000 formal and
informal jobs will be lost in 2009, and the International
Monetary Fund puts the country’s total number of unemployed
by year’s end at 52,600.
For its part, the private Nicaraguan Foundation for Economic
and Social Development forecasts that somewhere between
33,000 and 64,000 people will drop below the poverty line
this year, in a country where 47 percent of the population
lives on less than two dollars a day, according to the
United Nations.
In this country of 5.7 million, the economically active
population is 3.7 million. Women account for 39 percent of
all workers employed in the formal economy and 45 percent of
those in the informal sector, according to Central Bank
figures.
The official unemployment rate is nine percent, but other
estimates put it at 14 percent or higher. And these figures
do not take into account the large number of underemployed
or informal sector workers.
Labour Minister Janet Chávez, however, takes an upbeat view
of employment in the maquilas, countering what analysts and
studies say. She claims that only 15,000 jobs were lost
since early 2008, and says that while many maquila factories
have closed, new ones are opening up.
Eight companies were set up during that period and three
more will be opened in late 2009, creating a total of 8,500
new jobs, Chávez said.
Women without labour protections
But Evelyn Flores of the non-governmental Fundación Puntos
de Encuentro - a not-for-profit organisation formed in 1991
to raise awareness about and promote women’s issues in the
media - accuses the government of failing to protect the
rights of women and ensure proper working conditions for
them in maquilas, at a time in which these companies are
playing a major role in the prevailing trend of layoffs.
"The government has no employment policies for women, and
many women are forced to take on precarious jobs due to lack
of options or because they are the chief breadwinner in
their families. As a result they end up with jobs that have
no social security coverage, are forced to work long hours,
and suffer discrimination because of their gender," Flores
said.
A clear example of the government’s unwillingness to address
this situation, Flores noted, is that it is doing nothing to
enforce the Equal Rights and Opportunities Act, which in
theory requires that the state guarantee equal working
conditions for men and women in every sector of activity,
including maquilas.
The secretary general of the Confederation of Free Zone
Workers, Pedro Ortega, agreed that there is a "significant
lack of protection" for the rights of women workers in
maquilas, but said that they are "fighting to change that."
Ortega recalled that, thanks to efforts by trade unions, in
March 2009 the Labour Ministry signed an economic and labour
emergency agreement with the maquilas, backed by the
governmental National Free Zone Commission, aimed at
preserving employment and labour stability.
The agreement set a minimum wage increase in the maquilas of
eight percent for this year and 12 percent for 2010. In
addition, it stipulated measures to improve working
conditions and ensure greater respect for workers’ rights.
The minimum wage in the sector stands at around 118 dollars
a month, the lowest in all of Central America, where it
ranges from 164 dollars in El Salvador and Guatemala, to 416
dollars in Costa Rica.
The impact on Central America
The rise in female unemployment is expected to spread
throughout Central America, according to a study by the
International Labour Organisation, which predicts that
unemployment this year will affect half a million people in
the sub-region and the Dominican Republic combined.
Women represent 40 percent of the labour force, but they’ll
bear the brunt of unemployment due to the historical
discrimination they suffer, the study reports.
As a result, the female unemployment rate in the sub-region
will climb to 14 percent, while the general unemployment
rate will be significantly lower, at nine percent.
According to figures from the Central American Network of
Women in Solidarity with Maquila Workers, an estimated
411,502 people in Central America work in free zones, and
almost 52,000 women have been fired from maquilas since
early 2008 in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras
and Nicaragua. |
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