Africa-Press – Cape verde. A group of women, workers in the forestry perimeter of Planalto Leste, Santo Antão, are once again demanding a decent wage. They earn 249 escudos a day from the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, around five thousand escudos a month, without legal protection or social security. Some go hungry.
They are women and heads of families angry with a salary considered precarious, for more than 30 years and plunged into economic difficulties.
“Slavery”
Joana Neves, a worker for 35 years in the forestry perimeter, even talks about slave labor.
“I have been working under the same conditions for 35 years, with a precarious salary. The government talks so much about reducing poverty, but for us, in rural areas, this reduction never arrives. We worked like slaves, slavery never ended. All that remains is to arrest us and whip us, because even when we are sick, we have to work”, says the rural worker.
sustenance
In turn, Orlandina Fortes, also a worker at the perimeter, talks about the difficulties of supporting her children and paying expenses, in times of drought and unfavorable economic conditions.
“I work without eating because there is often nothing to eat. We work hard here and our work goes unrecognized,” she expresses indignantly.
fear of hunger
The newspaper A Nação was in the month of March in the forest perimeter of the East Plateau and noted the difficulty that women and men from the perimeter have had to put the pot on the stove.
On that occasion, we spoke with Joana Batista and Francisca dos Santos, both of whom reported fear of hunger.
“I am afraid of hunger. My income is a disgrace. There are ten of us at home and only I work. It is almost impossible to support the family with this income”, said Francisca dos Santos, 55 years old.
In turn, Joana Batista says she does everything she can to ensure that her salary guarantees at least a bag of rice and salt to stave off hunger and pay the cost of transportation and electricity.
All the workers in this perimeter are outraged and urgently ask for a salary increase and better working conditions.
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