With or without papers, we all breathe.
With or without papers, we have the same strength, the same energy.
With or without papers, here we are beasts of burden.
Interbrigadas is a solidarity organization based in Berlin
which since 2007 has organized cultural and political exchanges
in Spanish-speaking countries.
This movie was filmed in March 2017 during the Brigade "Berta Cáceres".
I want to say to the people who see this film
that the rights of people here are not taken into account
and will not be respected.
I'm a worker. I'm an immigrant.
I came here to work.
Somebody should say this to the people:
That you can’t treat workers like that.
In this company they do not treat us like workers,
not even like people, but as if we were objects.
When we demanded our money, they said:
"If you want work, accept the conditions,
if you don’t like them, See yourself to the street."
We are 22 people who were treated without mercy.
Last year we were paid under the collective agreement wages
But worked without rights.
This year, because they have not paid us, we have raised our voice.
We ask the Europeans to recognize our rights.
They only give us our papers to take advantage of us.
We will go on until they give us our rights
We ask the authorities, the Labor Inspector, the activists
to give us a hand here because our rights are lost.
We will go on until they tell us how we have really sinned.
What is our blame to deserve this mistreatment?
What have we done so the administration does not act?
What have we done to become slaves under plastic?
We feed millions of people.
Europe depends on this agriculture.
This industrial agriculture is damaging humanity.
We have to heal it, we have to stand up and say:
“No more exploitation!” Thank you.
Days of struggle, days of mourning.
Part 1: Days of struggle
What just happend was that the day before yesterday, March 7,
the manager told me: “Tomorrow you don’t come to work.”
Not just to me, but to all the 22 workers who demanded their rights.
Without any reason we were told “Your contract has been terminated.”
They justify it with the end of season, the end of harvest,
but that’s a lie.
And they have already employed new workers.
Cleaning needs to be done, plastic needs to be put in the soil, the flower-beds need to be weeded.
There is lots of work to be done.
It’s just a way of firing people.
We are going wait for the managers in front of the gate of the company.
I don’t know where they are.
We are going to wait. We don’t want anything.
Who ever has rights will claim them. According to the law.
We want to know their justification.
That’s why we’re here.
The most frequent labour problems agricultural workers suffer
here in the province of Almería are related to the salary.
The salary they earn is below what is fixed in the contract: 46.72 euros.
Bearing in mind that this already includes extraordinary payments and holidays.
In most cases the company does not respect the contract
and pays around 35.32 euros.
And for undocumented workers, who do not have residence or work permits,
it is between 20 and 25 euros for an eight-hour day.
The law of freedom of association is not respected either.
Whenever a manager finds out that a worker belongs to a union or wants to claim
any of his rights, he is fired.
We are here waiting and we are not going away.
Neither rain nor wind will stop us.
We are waiting for those responsible. In this way we draw the attention of all
the consumers of the European Union so they realise what is going on in this region.
We represent millions of workers in Almería.
This is how the harvest is done in Almería
this is how the vegetables reach the whole of Europe.
The workers are exploited. Work if you like; go home and report me if you don’t.
They are always defended by the law.
They say they are lucky here due to Spanish law.
In our contract it says we work until the tomato season ends
and there is still tomato.
In the plantation “Autovía de paraje Sargento #1 Nijar”
there is tomato.
Today the new workers are picking tomatoes there.
And we are at the gate of the plantation of Atochares
waiting the Labour Inspection.
We are waiting here for the boss
who needs to come here to speak to the people.
I have been working on this plantation for two years
others have been here for four, five, seven years.
We all work here, but we have many problems.
Earlier they did not pay us monthly
they paid us every other month, every month and a half, or every three months.
And when we wanted to know when pay day was
They would tell us: “There is no money.”
We talk to the general manager and he says:
“There is no money, I don’t lnow.”
And we wait for 2 months, 3 months, and now they are dismissing everyone
without even signing the dismissal or anything.
This is our situation today: They fire us for demanding a fair salary.
The organisation of workers in any sector
can help a lot to improve working conditions.
But here in the province of Almería,
we are dealing with around 45 thousand people.
At least this is what the Social Security registry says about agricultural workers.
We think there are many more
Most workers who offer services in this agricultural activity are people
who have come from other countries, from Morocco and Sub-Saharan countries.
So overall, they are people who have never joined
or been active members of any association.
Therefore they have not come in touch with world of workers’ organisation,
which is why they do not claim their rights.
Until they find themselves in very grave situations, such as they are dismissed .
or they are fed up with being paid low wages.
It’s a very difficult moment of truth. Attracting people’s attention
so that they all organise to fight for their rights is very difficult.
But their living conditions force people to do it.
Because we are all men and women with families, with children, with responsibilities,
who need to pay for water and light.
They have children who go to school, who need to be fed every day.
How does a mom or dad who works in agriculture get by
if at the end of the month their boss doesn’t pay them?
And your son requires many things:
He needs clothes, he wants to go to sports school,
he wants more stuff and you can’t do it.
These things force people to do it, to overcome their fear.
Some say: “There is more than this one company.
I can ask for my rights here
and if they won’t give them to me later,
I’ll just leave the company and make a living elsewhere.”
Well, I have lived here in Spain for 23, almost 24 years.
When I started, I worked in a warehouse,
and ever since we have struggled with our working conditions.
Because whenever new people come in, it’s like fresh meat
and the exploitation starts over and over again.
Some of us who have been here longer have learned that they need to report;
the others stay silent; as they don’t have any information,
it’s difficult for them.
That’s the vicious cycle.
When they don’t pay us for two months,
we start the third one without any money.
It’s not only this company that does it;
there are many, many bosses, many companies.
The thing in this region is that the bosses take advantage of the migrants.
95% of workers in this sector are immigrants,
and the law of labour risk prevention is not respected.
They work in a situation
in which their health is constantly exposed to bad working conditions.
The workers also spray pesticides
and in most cases they do not wear the necessary protective equipment
like masks, gloves and boots.
Can you imagine that one can work like that?
Without mask, suit and boots?
Do you think that this means having rights?
You need to do something to help us.
We foreigners are overwhelmed by this and this work is not good for us.
We want to work in the protection of your law, that they pay us fairly,
that they get our payroll right, because these people…
Without suit, without boots one cannot work and it ought not to be like this.
What we want is for you to help us, because these people, look,
They pay us 32, pay us just for 15 or 17 days.
We work the entire month.
This is not within the law.
What we want, is for you to help us.
For you to help us, because things cannot continue like this.
The farmland of Europe is in Almeria.
And considering the fact that there are so many fruit products,
this means there is exploitation throughout the entire year.
And the price of these products, a lot of times they are established
are established by the chains from France, from Germany, understand?
The countries where these products are exported,
have to be conscious of the manual labor
that works in the fields where these products are harvested.
It’s a labor force, a group of workers
which are exploited by the big companies here in Almeria.
And then every six months, they rename the company,
or more specifically the name of the boss.
This shows up on the paystub,
this doesn’t really matter to us, what we care about is working.
But in the last two years, almost all of the contracts have the same name.
The name is Juárez and Maldonado. That is what we know.
You see? The contract says the wage is 5.84 an hour,
they only pay you four euros.
It’s a trick.
What you take home is different
from what is stated in the Social Security account.
17 years ago we said the same thing:
In Almeria they don’t respect any agriculture laws.
Today we are demonstrating that 17 years of protest
have led to this.
Have led to what we are seeing today.
The 22 comrades fired by Juárez and Maldonado.
And they ask us what we are doing here?
We are doing this because we know about the connection.
between the managers of this company and Agrupaejido
One of them was president of Agrupaejido.
And so we have decided to demonstrate right here,
to denounce this injustice.
They get to the level of saying, look
„if you don’t like this job, stop working,
go to your house and denounce me“.
Because of the way the law works here,
if you denounce a company or a boss, the case will take two or three years.
So they prefer to fire you.
They kick you out and then you denounce them.
They don’t offer solutions.
They are always trying to figure out how to maneuver just within the law.
hey don’t talk straight, they actually don’t talk at all.
We are waiting to see what the law says.
We are waiting to see whether accountability exists in this country or not.
We want justice!
We want justice, we want our rights.
We want a fair agreement in Nijar.
We don’t want workers to be caught in a precarious position
where after working they can’t pay rent.
We don’t poor workers, we want dignified workers.
That’s why we have to think about securing the agricultural law in Almería
and in Nijar in particular.
An attack on one is an attack on us all
We want justice!
Agricultural subsidies are economic benefits for the businessmen
that facilitates their work and agricultural production.
This should have a positive effect on workers salaries
it should allow them to respect the salaries of the workers.
But this isn’t the case.
The role of the state is very relative.
Here the public administration knows exactly what is going on.
The General Treasury of Social Security
knows that there is fraud in social security.
Because the companies don’t actually pay the days that are worked.
They pay less, and that is well known.
The Labor inspector is also aware of the situation.
The Office of Housing also knows what is going on
and so does the Council of Andalucia
the Deputy Government knows as well.
And yet they don’t enact the necessary mechanisms
so there is no enforcement, not at the level of the Labor inspections
not in general regarding the companies.
Nor is there enforcement by the Housing Inspector in regards to these companies
to put an end to their non-compliance, or to the fiscal and Social Security fraud.
Within the companies’ administration
the immigrants, especially women
we deal with a lot of humiliation.
It’s difficult to confront because if you have some complaint
the first thing you see is the back door
because they fire you.
You don’t have the right to make complaints.
More than anything, in this province,
there are a lot of families that are owners of the land, landholders.
So it’s difficult to make a denunciation, to present a complaint.
You aren’t heard, and as a woman, it’s even more complicated.
I imagined it a long time ago
it seems like a dream.
It’s as if I was asleep and a dream comes to me:
to get to the point where I can denounce
all of this to the world and to all of Europe.
And to those who defend human rights,
they must speak out
they must do something as soon as possible.
That the the people here are like slaves.
When someone tells you:
"If you want to, keep wor king, if not, go home and denounce me.“
He knows the law will protect him.
Part 2: Days of Mourning
We are here because they snatched life away from us
they took a loved one
a friend, a family member, a comrade, a worker, a neighbor of this town.
It was the month of March, in his house.
That’s where it happened, what we are mourning today.
His daughter called 112
the Civil Guards arrived
and while they tried to arrest him, he died
I call the ambulance, I tell them "my father is sick
he took more than the normal dose of his pills."
Minutes later, the police come, they knock loudly.
They put the first handcuff and they have him on the floor
he had the other hand on his stomach, they don’t want to let him go.
And he is on the ground yelling "Help, I don’t want to go! Help!“
I am behind, with the neighbor and my mother
telling them, "Stop, he has Parkinson, he is sick!“
They threatened me with a baton and they told me to get out of the way.
One was kicking him with his foot, the other was on top of him.
They kick him and give him everything right in his head
and have him all scared up.
If you knew: we waited a half an hour for an ambulance.
The attack happens here, but it starts at the border.
If they adopt laws that prevent people from moving freely on European soil.
It's in the rules of the capitalist rulers of Europe where the attack begins.
Then this it functions through the repressive organs of the state,
such as the police, the Civil Guard and the authorities.
Unless they understand that the public and the labor authorities
do not accept the laws, they will not stop
They think that they can take every chance to be repressive
to act, often violently.
They act outside the law
whether it’s national law or international law.
It is outrageous!
But it gets even worse because the media doesn’t tell the truth either.
Newspaper: Death of a man from a heart attack after attacking his wife
Everything was done to make sure that the the Civil Guards were not blamed.
They have covered up the issue of domestic violence.
And even the issue of heart attacks.
That can not be!
We live in a country with the so-called rule of law
and then something like that can happen.
There is the face of state power! It’s outrageous!
And then the media still lie: they have not interviewed all the witnesses.
How long will this go on? Will we have to endure these lies for a century.
It is clear that this country needs a big work force:
this comes from Morocco and other African countries.
And the first thing they have done is to segregate the people.
On the other hand, in terms of hiring, the segregation is even desirable.
It leads to the exclusion of hundreds of workers,
condemned to poverty and temporary work.
On the whole, the system is a vicious circle.
This is not a political demonstration:
we only demand justice.
We not only demand justice from the Spanish authorities,
but also from our authorities.
From the consul of Morocco, the Moroccan, Senegalese
and remaining African governments.
They should see what is happening here.
We are very concerned about the incidents
Last Friday, it was Hamid, next time it could be someone else.
We are people, not animals!
The state power are the Civil Guard, the police, the lawyers,
the judges, the prosecutors
They simply do what they please here.
In other cases they wouldn’t be able to.
Elsewhere in Spain that had not happened.
I know that the repressive institutions have acted differently in a other regions.
We are in the 21st century. We deserve respect because we are workers.
We want to become citizens of the world, as they are -
the Europeans: first world citizens and first class citizens.
They go to third world countries and do as they please.
They should let us make our life here easy.
We can longer stand it!
We move between the greenhouse and the apartment -
between the apartment and the greenhouse. This is not life!
The companies in this province want to control the settings of the workers,
because they are interested in cheap labor.
Just so that they can remain in competition against other industries
and types of production.
There is no real interest in solving these problems
and we have to assume that such incidents will be repeated.
The violence finds its expression in racism, and becomes a so-called
racial issue, but in reality it has an economic cause.
The economic causes, the injustices, exclusion, poverty.
All this is supporting this shitty system.
We want them to tell us, how Hamid died
We are not accusing them, but he died in their hands.
His family, the society, everyone here
is demanding justice.
We want justice!
We demand justice! Justice, peace, solidarity and coexistence.
We are people, not animals. We are Muslims, but still people.
Epilogue: The fight continues.
Therefore, to make our goal of public opinion clear
that this is a problem all over the world.
If we are silent, they will eat us.
If we do not criticize, they will continue to play their games
and sell their products.
Because wild capitalism is just that! We need strength.
we need to work together with consumers around the world
anywhere where these goods come.
We do not want to remain slaves.
Economic dependence is a disgrace to humanity and we must reject it!
We need to change that and therefore
we are, you are in this fight it, together.
We must not let them continue. We must raise our voices.
We need to stay awake and illuminate all injustices to get things changed.
Our point of view is the following:
The workers are exploited.
We need support, we need partnerships and alliances to defeat this system.
The road will be difficult, but we will remain awake and fight it!