Equality and Diversity - Building a Culture of ... - Equality Authority

The Northern Ireland Congress of Trade
Unions, supported by the Equality
Commission and the Community Relations
Council, has produced guidance and a
video I Came here for… for trade unions to
raise awareness about race equality and to
encourage the development of strategies to
achieve equality for workers and customers
in a diverse Northern Ireland. The video
shows migrant workers talking about their
experiences and it debunks many of the
negative myths about migrant workers,
such as, they are causing unemployment.
The video is 22 minutes long but can be used
in sections to examine one of the myths or
specific experiences of the migrant workers.
The project booklet contains case studies,
and activities. While these were designed for
use with union officials and workers, they
can be easily adapted for students.
Activity four
The Exploitation of Mushroom
Workers in Ireland
(Equal Opportunities and workers’
human rights)
Resources
The video Organising Mushroom Workers
in Ireland This is or accessible at http://www.
youtube.com/watch?v=2dCRMbVMhMo&feat
ure=player_embedded
In 2010, migrant women were working in
forced labour on mushroom farms. Women
were working in extremely bad conditions,
were paid €4 per hour and had no time off to
cash cheques or to buy food. SIPTU (Services,
Industrial, Professional and Technical Union)
and MRCI (the Migrants Rights Centre Ireland)
united workers to change slavery-like working
conditions. More than 500 workers took
collective action to directly challenge their
management about exploitation and their
concerns with the conditions of employment.
440 workers now receive proper pay that was
previously withheld by employers, have better
conditions and are able to meet with the
union at their workplace. Now, a Registered
Employment Agreement clearly sets out
terms and conditions, rates of pay, holiday
entitlements and sick pay for the industry.
The video Organising Mushroom Workers in
Ireland tells the story of the exploitation and
the actions taken to ensure the women got
their rights. Use the clip where Inese from
Latvia describes their working conditions and
what happened when SIPTU and MRCI got
involved. This is almost 4 minutes long and
starts at 7.41 minutes into the video.
Show the clip to the students once and ask
for their immediate reactions. Then show it
to them again and ask them to:
List the ways in which the women were
being exploited
What human rights were being denied to
the women
The reasons why the women did not take
action before the union got involved
Explain why the employer was so angry
when Sintja from the union came to speak
for the women.
Then show the last 2 minutes of the video
from 13.19 onwards and ask them to identify:
How Inese’s thinking has changed since the
union involvement
3 ways in which the life of the workers has
been improved
What rights have they now gained
Finish with a discussion on how the rights of
migrant workers are linked to everyone in who
buys mushrooms, and to all those who benefit
from the work of migrant workers in other areas
such as health and other service industries.
78 sECTION 3 EXPLORING Equality