Contribution of Waged Agricultural Workers to Sustainable
Agriculture -IUF -Global Pesticides Project (GPP).
This a success case in Uganda involving National Union of Plantation
and Agricultural Workers an agricultural trade union affiliated IUF in
reducing pesticides hazards in the tea, sugar and cut-flowers
plantations.
IUF- International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant,
Catering, Tobacco, and Allied Workers' Associations is an
International trade union federation composed of 300 affiliated
organisations in 118 countries representing a combined membership of
2.5 million employed in the global food chain -agriculture, the
preparation and manufacturing of food and beverages, hotel and
restaurant catering services and all stages of tobacco processing (from
the plough to plate).
National Union of Plantation and Agricultural Workers, Uganda NUPAWU, represents workers in the sugar and tea plantations, cutflower farms and general agriculture in Uganda. It has of 47,000
including 12,000 women with an estimated potential membership of
250,000 men and women.
 These are permanent, seasonal/contract, and part-time workers,
women and men and children who are miserably paid and many
are outside the union's jurisdiction due to legal implications.
 These workers use or are exposed to a wide variety of toxic and
often persistent and bioaccumulative, synthetic chemical pesticides
-herbicides, insecticides, fungicides etc.
 Many workers are severely poisoned or suffer long time effects as
a result
 Their exposure pesticides can be further increased as they often
live where they work. So pesticides in spray drift contaminate
them and their families, communities and environment, polluted
water and soil as well as consuming local crops, meat, fish,
containing pesticides residues.
 Used empty pesticides containers are given to workers as
incentives and they convert them for domestic use; storing
drinking water, food etc.
 No provision of protective wear, poor storage and disposal
facilities for pesticides
 Lack awareness of pesticide hazards to human health and the
environment
 Official accurate data on fatalities or poisoning are difficult to
obtain in Uganda.

This situation does not apply only to Uganda, but also to other
African and developing countries.
To tackle these problems IUF set up a Global Pesticides Project-GPP
in 1998 covering six if its agricultural trade union affiliates in Africa
namely:
 Ghana Agricultural Workers Union(GAWU);

Tanzania Plantation and Agricultural Workers(TPAWU)

General Agricultural and Plantation Workers Union, Zimbabwe
(GAPWUZ)
 National Union of Cooperative Movement and Allied Workers
Uganda (NUCMAWU)
 National Union of Plantation and Agricultural Workers, UgandaNUPAWU
GPP-Goals
The overall goals of the GPP is to build local, national and regional
union capacity to work on local, national, regional and international
pesticides issues within the context of sustainable agriculture, and
linked to integrated pest management, pollution prevention, and
genetically manipulated organism biotechnology
Target Groups
Target groups include grassroots trade union members, shopstewards,
branch officials, union committee members, national union leaders and
officers, pesticides policy makers and environmental /consumers
organisations.
GPP Activities in NUPAWU
The following activities are the component of the project in
NUPAWU:
 Extending trade union Education Study Circles (ESC) to provide
training on pesticide health, safety and environment (HSE) issues
 Training of trainers. A first step in extending the ESCs to
pesticides HSE is to train local Study Circle leaders who will then
teach on other courses and help in the setting up of new study
circle groups.
 Training in negotiation, lobbying, policy-making, and networking
skills for a small number of ESC-trained union members/officers.
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Linking up with IUF's work/project on cut flowers where direct
pesticide use and exposure resulting from working in treated areas
or touching sprayed vegetation etc result in serious threat to the
health of the workers.
Participating in the National Coordinating Team developing the
National Profiles to Assess the National Infrastructure for
Management of Chemicals. The first Draft is already sent to
UNITAR; the document will ready by August 2002.
Together with some NGO , pressing for speedy
signing/ratification, of the Rotterdam Convention on the Prior
Informed Consent (PIC) Procedure for Certain Hazardous
Chemicals in International Trade, 1998;
Involve in systematically collecting data on pesticide user
'incidents' (as per the PIC Convention criteria), and to report this
information to the government PIC authority.
GPP Partnership
The GPP Unions also support IUF strategy in respect to the Global
Industry's voluntary initiative entitled the Pesticides Safe Use Project
(SUP) program. IUF seeks to ensure that these SUPs, carried out by
the Crop-life International formerly Global Crop Protection Federation
(GCPF) in cooperation with national agro-chemical associations of
Uganda:
 Provide the appropriate training for agricultural workers using or
/and exposed to pesticides.
 Involve workers and their trade union in the design,
implementation and independent verification of SUPS
 Are effective in raising minimum, global standards of pesticides
use.
Such training has been carried out in NUPAWU for workers and
middle management. Workshops for top management and plantation
owners are also planned for 2002.The training program is jointly
organised and funded by both the unions and the industry.
Strong links /interactions are also being established with external
organisations as follows:
 To promote Integrated Pest Management as an alternative to the
use of chemical pesticides (IUF and GPP Unions are working with
the Global IPM Facility of the FAO/World Bank and UNEP)
 Collaboration with Pesticides Action Network (PAN)- PAN
Africa, PAN-UK, PAN North America. PAN Asia etc.
 Global Crop Protection Federation (Crop Life International)
Benefits of the GPP to NUPAWU:
Capacity building: -Trained Study Circles Leaders on pesticides issues
-IT Equipment - Computers connected to E-mail and Internet, Fax for
networking with other GPP Unions and IUF.
-Expanded information Resource: CD -ROMS on pesticides and
related subjects, ILO Encyclopaedia on Health and Safety, Crop
Protection Compendium, various literatures and information materials.
-Informed membership on hazards of pesticides
Impact on Workers.
- Demands for protective wear by those handling/using pesticides
-Use of pesticides containers for domestic use is stopped, used
containers are now punctured, crushed and deposited in the scrap yard.
- Increased awareness; workers now report of misuse of pesticide
and other health and safety issues to union offices.
- Reading of labels /entry interval and other instructions are strictly
observed by superiors and the workers.
- Formation of Health and Safety Committee at workplaces to
handle HSE issues.
- Provision of Protective wear to sprayers
- Management support to GPP training programs.
- Improved Pesticides risk reduction management
Agriculture can not be sustainable in an environment where workers
are always ill or dying because of acute and chronic pesticides
poisoning. This case is a manifestation that workers can make positive
changes in their rural through their organisations. Workers should be
given the freedom to exercise their rights to form trade
unions/organisations particularly the women workers so that they are
able to effectively participate in SARD.
The GPP is to be extended to agricultural trade unions in Kenya,
Malawi and South Africa.
Omara Amuko
IUF- GPP Coordinator, NUPAWU.