Sustainability of Whom, Sustainability of What - Section 4 - Artisans

8/2/2019 Sustainability of Whom, Sustainability of What - Section 4 - Artisans

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THE SUSTAINABLE LIVING WAGE/INCOMEINTHE ARTISAN COMMUNITIES

Research about the Guatemalan economy usually does not mention the

traditional woven crafts of the Mayans communities throughout Guatemala.

Descriptions of the Guatemalan economy focus is on agriculture and

manufacturing with no inclusion of the Mayan crafts which are a constitutivedimension of the Guatemalan economy. In market after market in many parts of

the country, the colorful weavings and the numerous products that have been

made from the weavings are available in store after store, in stall after stall and

from individuals seeking to sell their products directly to you.

The Central Market in Guatemala is lined with small stalls filled with these crafts

alongside the stalls for clothing, shoes, herbs and medicinal items, foods and

household items. Truly the crafts are a means by which many earn their living.

However a review of the individual stalls quickly demonstrates that many are

selling the same items in varied colors or sizes but essentially the same items. In

this market the stalls are operated by small business men and women who buy

the crafts from the artisans.

The biggest challenges facing the artisans are:

access to markets beyond the local communities,

product development that will provide new items to sell,

guarantee of good prices for their work.

A quick internet search for Guatemalan crafts provides extensive lists of the many

groups and organizations working to provide access to markets for those who are

producing the craft items. These groups serve a key role, for without them, the

artisans would not have access to markets outside of Guatemala. These groups

can be divided into two main groups: those involved in Fair Trade and those who

are not.

The Fair Trade movement, working in partnership with artisans around the world,

seeks to raise the income of the producers through a set of specific relationships

with the artisans and their communities. Fair Trade partners have specific

relationships with specific artisans and artisan organizations. Long term

relationships and commitments are key as a means of providing artisans with

security of sales and therefore security of income. Because the purpose of Fair

Trade is the increased income and standard of living for the artisans, their families

and communities, prices are fairly negotiated.

The Fair Trade relationship between the artisans and the sellers is usually a direct

one which reduces the layers of middlemen (and women who also need to make

a profit. This means greater income for the artisans.

CRAFTSCRAFTS--ARTISANSARTISANS

________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 2008, Center for Reflection, Education and Action 63


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For this study, we examined the role of crafts in the communities in and around

Chichicastenango. On Sundays and Thursdays, the market days in Chichi, as it

is commonly known by locals, stalls line the streets with almost everything that

anyone wanted or needed: foods, clothing, pots and pans, crafts and flowers, etc

are organized in portable stalls on specific streets so that those familiar with the

city know exactly where to find what they want. The markets draw the K'iche'Mayans of the surrounding region, as well as vendors from the Mam, Ixil,

Kaqchikel and other indigenous groups selling their crafts.

On non-market days, the streets are quiet and bare. The portable stalls that go up

the day before market days transform the streets into color and liveliness that is

difficult to imagine if you have not been there.

For this project, we focused on the Ruth y Nohemi cooperative, a project of the

National Methodist Church in Guatemala, founded in 1984.

History Of The Methodist Project Ruth and Nohemy by Rev. Diego Chicoj

Before the violence, the church of this town had a membership of 300 and a building measuring 12 x 22 yards. During the

1980s the inhabitants were threatened and persecuted, then thrown out of their community, leaving behind their houses,

land and animals. The most critical event occurred on an afternoon in 1981: the army cornered the townspeople at a site

in front of the Methodist church, which is located at the edge of the road. They then arrested about 40 peoples, tied them

up, and put them in the road ( as if they were logs ready for the fire) later, when not a soul was moving, the soldiersgrabbed this same group of people, put them inside the church and bombed it. Thus ended the membership and their

church. The army however, did not stop with that. Instead they went around the town and burned houses too.

Three years later, a very old sister invited me to see if we might get together a few of the women and children who had

been left widows and orphans. People from other churches in the area asked if they could join with us to celebrate

worship services and we said certainly. We did this for a year and afterwards they become enthused enough to conduct

their own services. In 1985 the church had 3 men, 8 women and a few children.

One afternoon which I will never forget, 2 sisters who are members of the church come to me in tears saying Pastor,

could not you help us with a few pounds of corn because we have no food for tonight? I felt a calling that we must do

something for them. Feeling that in this moment it would not be helpful just to pray for them and tell them to pray and that

God would help them. Rather, I thought how are we able to help?

The next day I went to Quetzaltenango to present the situation to the president of the church and he listened and took an

interest in their miserable situation. He asked me if only two people were in need. And I told him no. He told me it would

be better to investigate possibilities and organize the people in need because it would be unjust if we helped certain ones

and ignored the others. He asked what are we able to do? We dont give away, and even if we gave away a few dollars

to each one, it will soon be depleted and the need will continue. It would be better to provide capital to allow them to work

and thus provide income for the long term.

Guatemala endured a bloody civil

war between government soldiers,

right-wing groups (paramilitaries),

and leftist rebels that lasted 36 years

(1960-1996), the longest civil war in

Latin American history.

The tragedy of the civil war was

deeply rooted in the day to day real-

ity of the Guatemalan people. Ex-

treme poverty, illiteracy resulting in

the highest rates of incapacity for

reading and writing in the Western

Hemisphere, poor health care,

homelessness, severe agricultural

problems including the struggles of

the farm workers, the exclusion and

marginalization of the indigenous

peoples, the fragmentation of society

were some of the causes that led to

the armed conflict.


________________________________________________________________________________________________________64 Sustainability of Whom? Sustainability of What?


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In their relationships with the cooperative, CREA follows Fair Trade standards,

which require the following elements:

on-going, supportive relationships with the cooperative

a cooperative democratically organized with gender equality

up-front, just payment for goods assistance with access to markets

environmentally sustainable operations.

The Fair Trade system has three essential components: the artisans, the sellers,

and those who recognize the work that is being done and purchase the items for

their own use or for gifts. The components exist as a synergy, each

interdependent with the others.

I returned to the community and was surprised to find that eight people were waiting instead of just two. I asked each

them what type of help was needed. Some said they could raise pigs, chickens and sheep. Others said they could wea

and so they were given assistance according to what they could do. For example, they were given chemical fertilizer

their cornfields so that they could improve their corn harvest. The weavers, however, continued to come because on

they had finished with their work, they carried the pieces to the market but no one bought them because at this time th

were hardly any people, especially tourists, going to the market.

Then an idea occurred to me- I could make purses, shirts and book bags out of the products that the women made

organized some young orphans who needed to learn a trade, because at that time the young people were emigrating

the capital in search of work. Some found jobs but other did not, and all left their mothers in sadness because th

husbands were already gone, and now their children were far away. So we asked for some sewing machines from t

church office, and they gave us five used machines. I began to teach sewing to 9 young men and 3 young women of

village three days a week.

In 1988 the few funds we had ran out, and I felt obligated not to abandon the young people involved in the project. I spo

with people at ACAD (Central American Development Assistants) to see if they might help us get a market for the f

things we had and buy us a few additional things. This went on through 1988 and 1989, until in 1990 we finally got a lit

more aid to continues with our project.

According to the women and young people already involved in the project, there were more young people who want

learn the trade. However, we lacked sewing machines, so we asked ACAD again if it were possible to get some mo

machines. They kindly got us four sewing machines, which the young people are using today. At present we have 8 you

people working formally on the project, and 15 women weaving. The remaining young people went to work for other peo

after they learned the trade, one of whom is already an instructor

We have now bought a small piece of land especially for this project, 800 meters from the village, where our team

working and studying. Here our objective is that the ladies and young people be not merely learn a trade, but that th

also learn to read and write, and if possible get certified, for their own sense of achievement.

This conflict had had many implica

tions. More than 200.000 people d

and 50,000 were missing at the tim

of the peace agreement.

The signing of the peace agreemebetween the Government of Guate

mala and the URNG (Unidad

Revolucionaria Nacional Guatema

teca) on December 29, 1996, ende

the internal armed conflict that had

resulted in dire consequences for t

country: significant damage to the

countrys infrastructure, the loss of

precious human lives and human

rights violations of its citizens




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People often think that the entire price that is paid for an item becomes the wages

or income to the artisan. What must be taken into consideration is the artisans

cost of the supplies for the work: thread, needles, cloth, zippers, etc, and the

costs of equipment and any needed electricity. On the part of the seller in the US

or elsewhere, the cost of transportation of the crafts from the artisan to the

markets must be added to the price paid by the purchaser. In addition, if thearrangement includes on-going large orders, provision of storage and staffing

must be included in the price. Otherwise this work could not be done on any

larger scale than that of a single traveler making a purchase in one country,

carrying it home to sell and then sending the money back to the artisan. The

ultimate purpose of the price charged to the purchaser is to allow both the artisan

and the seller to recoup expenses, to achieve a sustainable living wage, and to

contribute to the development of the project. Most Fair Trade sellers are non-profit

organizations that put their after-expense profits back into the development of the

project. Their goal is to increase the market for the cooperatives.

It is possible that a cooperative is organized according to Fair Trade principles but

does not have access to enough sellers of their products who are willing to honorthe Fair Trade price commitment. In those cases, the artisans will sell their crafts

to other sellers simply as a means of earning a living.

CREA has, in addition, created a Fair Trade-Peace Trade project to work with

cooperatives to develop a self-sustainable and reproducible model that will allow

these cooperatives, and ultimately others, to adapt more effectively to changing

markets. The project includes product development and a production process that

includes the design, development, marketing and production of new products to

help ensure a more consistent flow of work. CREA has undertaken this project to

support efforts to provide employment for men as well as women, in order to

provide an alternative to joining the military, gangs, or drug dealers. Our

understanding of peace is broad based. The absence of war is not yet peace if we

do not address the systemic violence that hunger and poverty inflict.

Collecting the Data

As with the interviews conducted with the maquila workers, our team interviewed

the artisans in their homes or work areas. All the interviews were voluntary. Aida

introduced us and the project and why we were doing the project. Of course, all

the interviews were in Spanish.

Pricing was done in Chichicastenango even though the artisans live in villages

around the city. The city is the main market where they do their shopping.




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The Fair Trade-Peace Trade project builds on the Fair Trade work CREA has been doing for the past 6+ years focus

on coffee, tea, cocoa and crafts from several countries. It focuses on building on-going relationships with cooperatives t

are finding places for young men so that they have alternatives to violence as a way of supporting themselves and th

families. In the past, most of the cooperatives have focused on women. This needs to continue as the development

ways of including young men is developed, expanded and maintained.

The seed for the Fair Trade-Peace Trade project was planted during a conversation with our translator and driver duri

one of the trips that was part of the Women to Women Project in Haiti. In this project, we brought women from the US

meet with women in Haiti who were trying to start small businesses. The aim was to have each of the US women spons

one or more of the Haitian women.

During a conversation with Dumond, our driver and translator with whom I had worked on other projects in Haiti, he ask

why there were no parallel projects for men. His reasoning was as follows: At that point, the job choices for men in Ha

were few: the militia, the police, the macoutesall part of the system of violence operating in Haiti. Despite frequent

telling of our conversation, I have never been able to find anyone interested in the project for men. But the seed of an id

was planted.

Within the project, CREA is working with cooperatives in El Salvador, Guatemala and the Philippines. In the coming ye

we hope to expand the project to Bangladeshi and Palestinian cooperatives.




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PROCESSINGTHE DATAFORTHE ARTISANS

As with the maquilas, spreadsheets were created for each of the pricing

categories. The data was then entered into the spreadsheet with separate

columns for each of the locations where pricing was done. The same was done

for the data from the interviews.

For each item in each category, we the calculated the high, low and average

prices and then converted the average prices to minPP.

Monthly Cost Weekly CostCost in minPP per Week

at Minimum Wage

Rent orParallel Cost*

Workers live oncommunity land



Electricity Q 30.13 Q 6.95 70 minPP

Cooking Fuel Q 116.67 Q 26.92 269 minPP

Transportation Q 24.80 Q 5.72 57 minPP

Telephone Use Q 87.50 Q 20.19 202 minPP

Total Q 259.10 Q 59.78 598 minPP

*Many of the artisans pay no rent because they live on their own land

Housing and Related Costs in Chichicastenango and Nearby Villages

Monthly Cost forFamily of Four

Weekly Cost forFamily of Four

Cost in minPP per weekat Minimum Wage

Potable Water Not available Not available Not available

Non-Potable Water Q 12.00 Q 2.76 28 minPP

Total Cost Q 2.76 Q 2.76 28 minPP

Water

Monthly Cost Weekly CostCost in minPP per week

at Minimum Wage

Adult Man Q 687.93 Q 158.76 1,588 minPP

Adult Woman Q 653.73 Q 150.86 1,509 minPP

Child / Infant Q 632.67 Q 146.86 1,469 minPP

Total Costs forFamily of Four

Q 2,607 Q 603.34 6,033 minPP

Food




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at Minimum Wage

Adult Man Q 73.49 Q 16.96 170 minPP

Adult Woman Q 107.34 Q 24.77 248 minPP

Child / Infant Q 86.58 Q 19.98 200 minPP

Total Costs for

Family of Four

Q 353.99 Q 81.69 817 minPP

Clothing

Monthly CostPer Child

Weekly Costper Child

Cost in minPP per weekat Minimum Wage

Total N/A N/A N/A

Education


at Minimum Wage

CommonHouseholdMedicines

Q 63.13 Q 14.57 146 minPP

Savings AgainstIllness and

Loss of Work

Q 26.00 Q 6.00 60 minPP

Total Q 89.13 Q 20.57 206 minPP

Healthcare




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at Minimum Wage

Housing andRelated Costs

Q 259.10 Q 59.79 598 minPP*

ReplacementClothing

Q 354.04 Q 81.69 817 minPP

Non-Consumables Q 200.00 Q 46.15 462 minPP

Food Q 2,614.47 Q 603.34 6,033 minPP

Potable Water N/A N/A N/A**

Non-PotableWater

Q 12.00 Q 2.76 28 minPP

Education N/A N/A N/A

Health Q 89.13 Q 20.57 206 minPP

Total Q 3,528.74 Q 814.30 8143 minPP

Sustainable Living Wage/Income for Artisans

* This number represents the costs of light, fuel, etc. necessary even when rent does not need to be paid.

* Potable water was not available in any of the hamlets where the artisans live.

THE SUSTAINABLE LIVING WAGEFORTHEARTISANSECTOR

How are we to understand the data presented?

f the average workweek is 44 hours according to Guatemalan Labor Law, then workers earn

2640 minPP each workweek.

(44 hours x 60 minutes per hour = 2640 minPP)

For a family of four, the Sustainable Living Wage standard would require a weekly income of Q. 814.30. On a monthly basis, the in-come required would be Q3,528.74.

CALCULATINGTHE SUSTAINABLE LIVING WAGEFORTHE ARTISANS



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Sustainability of Whom, Sustainability of What - Section 4 - Artisans