WUNRN
Brazil - Women Workers Train with Heavy
Equipment for Skills & Higher Wages
By Mario Osava
GUARIBA,
Brazil, Mar 28, 2011 (IPS) - "She's crazy" said most of the husbands
and other family members of the 34 women who decided to become operators of
sugarcane harvesters in the southern Brazilian state of São Paulo, attracted by
the opportunity of better pay and encouraged by the growing mechanisation of
the industry.
But when IPS
spoke to them, they made it clear that nothing will stop their fight to break
down the stereotype that driving huge machines, alone and sometimes in the
dark, through the region's endless sugarcane fields is a man's job.
Being seven
months pregnant did not stop 33-year-old Rosana do Carmo, who already has three
children, from taking the course offered by the Secretariat of Employment and
Labour Relations (SERT) of Guariba, a town of 35,000 people in Brazil's main
sugarcane producing region, some 300 km from the city of São Paulo, the
country's largest city.
She hopes to
complete the classroom time, four hours every weeknight, before the birth. She
plans to leave the practical part of the training, in the harvester, for when
the baby is a little older.
Earlier, she
took a tractor operation course. "I was the only woman among 18 men,"
she says, adding that she had to put up with constant jokes like "your
feet are too small for the pedals." But far from backing down, do Carmo
said she is determined to drive an even bigger and more complex machine, in
search of a decent living "and prosperity."
The course
for harvester operators is only for women. The sugarcane industry employs few
women, and they have been hit hardest by the unemployment generated by the
growing mechanisation of the harvest, Guariba's municipal secretary of
employment José Roberto de Abreu told IPS.
Many of the
women taking the course are divorced mothers raising their children on their
own, in an area where a high rate of casual work draws many workers from around
the country, fuelling divorce, he said.
Noemia
Pereira de Melo, a 37-year-old mother of two, is highly respected by her fellow
students for her long years as a sugarcane cutter. "I've been cutting cane
since I was 18," she says. At first, she followed in the footsteps of her
father, who moved around, chasing the harvest. But finally she settled down in
Guariba.
She has also
done other jobs in the sugar industry, such as soldering, but her dream is to
run a harvester. She took one course, where "I was the only woman, with 40
men," but she did not take the practical classes, and was not hired. This
time she thinks she'll be lucky, because a local plant is planning on hiring
more women.
"I want
to stop cutting sugarcane, to get ahead," she said. Besides, the long
hours with the machete have given her bursitis, "which my arm has never
recovered from, despite the treatments," she added.
Cane cutters
earn less than 1,000 reals (600 dollars) a month, but machinery operators can
earn two to three times that, depending on the productivity, as wages in the
sugar cane industry are not fixed but based on production levels.
The
transition away from burning is forcing cane cutters to be replaced by
harvesters, which totalled 140,000 last year, according to a study by the
Several
public and private organisations are helping cane cutters retrain for higher
skilled jobs in agriculture and industry, to help them land steady, better-paid
jobs, instead of the current seasonal work that lasts only eight months a year.
This first
course promoted by Secretary Abreu grants a 210 dollar a month scholarship to
the 34 women who were selected.
Abreu says
he first came up with the idea when he was appointed to head SERT in 2009,
after working for years in sugar mills as an agricultural technician, manager
of mechanisation and trainer.
"I
expect some of them to drop out, but there are other women hoping to get a spot
in the course," he commented.
SERT also
offers courses for other jobs in the sugarcane industry, such as tractor
drivers and pallet stackers, and in other areas, like construction, the textile
industry and food preparation. The local workforce needs training for the new
jobs, Abreu said.
Trade
unions, sugar and ethanol processing plants and agribusiness companies have
also joined together in the Renovation programme, aimed at providing training
to 7,000 sugarcane workers in new jobs within and outside of the industry.
Women have
been given top priority in the courses organised by SERT, which has trained
1,400 people in the last two years. The goal is for women in Guariba not to be
forced to work as domestics in wealthier nearby cities and towns.
At this time
there are 620 women registered as domestic employees, around 500 of whom work in
The Guariba
municipal government covers 40 percent of the cost of the women's bus
transportation to the city, which is 65 km away.
That is a
benefit that Cilia Maria Silva, a 57-year-old resident of the neighbouring
Pradópolis, does not enjoy. She spends an hour a day commuting to and from her
job as a domestic in
"Industries
and factories are needed, to generate more jobs" in Pradópolis and
Guariba, she told IPS, saying she envies the people of the nearby town of
Dumont, population 8,000, which enjoys full employment thanks to a local peanut
factory.
"I
would never wash other people's clothes," declared Rita de Cassia Cardoso,
one of the youngest of the 34 women taking the course for harvester operators.
At the age of 21, she has already driven trucks, made handcrafts and worked in
several different jobs in agriculture in her home state of Mato Grosso do Sul
in west-central
She came to
Guariba with her husband, who has a job in a local factory, and says that the
course is helping her move towards "my childhood dream of working as a
truck driver for a factory." But she says that she will not stop there:
she plans to study agronomy, "to take part in the globalisation
process."
Her
colleague Rita das Neves, a 30-year-old mother of one, illustrates the plight
of the cane cutters. She started working when she was just 11 years old, when
"I couldn't even stand the (mandatory) ankle guard," because it was
too big for her.
Her husband
injured his knee during harvest one year and now runs a small family-owned bar,
while she is seeking to move up in the industry.
Out of each
group of 50 cane cutters, there are only four to six women, said Neves, talking
about the discrimination women face. "And I cut more than they did,"
she complained.
Neves
studied accounting, but she never found a job in that field "because I
don't have the right last name," she said, alluding to her humble origins.
She also worked as a domestic, but says "I preferred to cut cane."
Now, three months pregnant, she is learning to operate heavy farm machinery.
"This is where my future, and the future of my family, lie – I have no
doubt," she said optimistically.