“Spain’s economy is the envy of Europe, but the plight of its strawberry pickers tells another story”
…The 11,000-hectare (27,000-acre) sprawl there is surrounded by roughly 40 chabolas, makeshift slums housing thousands of migrant workers. According to Diego Cañamero, co-founder of Soc-Sat, the Andalusian Workers’ Union, 40% of Huelva’s seasonal work force of 100,000 are undocumented. Without paperwork, the workers cannot rent accommodation, and so thousands are forced to live in shacks made of scraps scavenged from waste dumps, with no running water or electricity.
Cañamero put me in touch with a local union official, who took me around the enormous sprawl of polytunnels and surrounding chabolas. He asked not to be named – he told me he had been attacked because of his organising efforts…
In 2019, the union received more than 1,000 complaints related to working conditions in Huelva. Six years on, things have not improved. There are farms that treat their workers fairly and pay a decent wage, but most don’t, my union guide said…
While Spain celebrates its widely envied GDP growth and the plaudits of the economic establishment, and Europe’s supermarkets count the profits from year-round grocery sales, the people doing the punishing work that supports it are suffering appalling working conditions and living in slums….
WACOCA: People, Life, Style.