Özgü Özütok/JINHA

AYDIN – The seasonal agricultural workers of Ortaklar, in Turkey’s western province of Aydın, first arrived in the area as the children of forced migration. The women said that while they love the earth, they work in undignified conditions—and dream of being able to work freely and on their own land.

Ortaklar is a center for seasonal agricultural labor in the Germencik district of Turkey’s western Aydın province. Here, women seasonal agricultural workers labor under difficult conditions in the field. The women explained that while they were able to find work more easily before the mechanization of agriculture, today they struggle to find work. The women, who deal with repressive foremen and bosses, said that those who speak up about the inhumane conditions are not called in for the next job.

23-year-old Sidar Özer was born in Siirt, in the Kurdistan region. She has never been to school, and has been working in the fields since she was eight. She started in the fields weeding and hoeing, and has harvested cotton, tomatoes, pomegranate and grapes.

“Of all the foreman and bosses, I’ve never seen one who acts polite,” said Sidar. “They all cheat people of their rights. And if you don’t know anything, if you’re poor, they oppress you even more. They’re even violent to little children.” Sidar, too, was the victim of physical abuse in the fields as a child. She was forcibly taken to work in many worksites against her will.

“They know you have a need, you’re needy and you’re small, and they literally gauge your willpower. If you stand up and don’t do what they say, of course they won’t call you in for another job,” said Sidar.

Sidar said that she used to have work all year round, but that mechanization has changed this.

“There’s not much use for us anymore except for harvests and sorting,” said Sidar, noting that the cotton harvest and weeding have all been mechanized. She said that the wages for the work amount to less than minimum wage.

“The foremen call us when there’s a job, and while we work they’re constantly watching us and shouting at us. When we pick the oranges, they won’t even let us eat until the trucks are full,” she said, noting that it’s a common practice in the fields (where work starts early in the morning) for foremen not to allow the workers to eat until 3:30 or 4:30 in the afternoon.

“Actually, other than the difficulty that people go through, I really like field work, but because they oppress people so much, I don’t want to go. I’m trying to find another job for myself,” said Sidar. “If it weren’t for this problem, working with nature, working with the land is a great job, actually. It’s just that we don’t have insurance, and we can’t get our rights. If it weren’t for this, I’d never trade this work for anything else.”

Agricultural worker Garip Taş has been working in the fields since she was 17. She was also born in Siirt, but forced to migrate to Mardin due to state repression in her village. When she married at 16, she moved to Aydın province to work. She stressed that the work provided neither insurance nor continuity.

“We get our day’s wages if the foreman want, and we don’t get it when they don’t want it,” said Garip. She said some bosses see the workers as slaves, and many try to reduce their daily breaks as much as possible.

“You’re the boss, but if I as the worker don’t come, you can’t harvest your field,” said Garip. Garip’s husband works, and since the children are all in school, she has to support the family as well. She said that if they had been able to stay in their own villages, this might not have happened.

“We don’t have house or home. This isn’t our homeland. And we have to work. We’ve gone through the same issues here, but we were all right in our village,” said Garip. “We don’t want to live like this; no woman wants to live like this.”

(ht/fk/cm)