Global IssuesBRAZIL: Women Workers Determined to Ride the Wave of Mechanisation
'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.
São Paulo, the state that produces 60 percent of Brazil's sugar and ethanol, will ban the burning of cane fields — a practice that facilitates manual harvesting — in 2014 under an agreement between the state government and the sugarcane industry.
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 Paulista State University.
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 Ribeirão Preto, the capital of this sugarcane producing region which has 85 municipalities and 50 sugar or ethanol plants. In that wealthy city, domestics earn about 500 dollars a month, and enjoy labour rights and weekends off, unlike in Guariba.
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 Ribeirão Preto. She fondly remembers the four years when she worked in a sugar processing plant in her town, and her only consolation is that she will soon be able to retire.
'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 Brazil.
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.
© Inter Press Service (2011) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service