Flower Worker Justice Project

This project supports the basic rights of and economic justice for flower workers in Latin America producing for the U.S. market. 

Most flowers sold in the U.S. are grown in Colombia and Ecuador, where workers are paid poverty-level wages, work long hours before key holidays like Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day, and whose largely female workforce is exposed to unhealthy pesticides.

Since 2005, USLEAP has focused on supporting flower workers in Colombia who are fighting to improve wages and working conditions and to gain respect by establishing unions and securing collective bargaining agreements.  USLEAP’s work has included strategic planning with flower worker unions, a campaign versus Dole Fresh Flowers (the largest exporter of flowers from Latin America to the U.S.), worker tours, delegations to Colombia, and media work.  USLEAP currently works primarily in support of Untraflores, an industry-wide industrial union in Colombia that is vigorously opposed by the Colombian flower industry, Asocoflores.

On this project, USLEAP collaborates closely with the Flower Workers Committee in Miami (the primary port of entry for flowers from Latin America), the International Labor Rights Fund, and the AFL-CIO's Solidarity Center.