Labour agency in the cut flower industry in Ethiopia: should I stay or should I go?
Bio
Abstract PhD
Globalization and global competition has led to a relocation of low technology, labour intensive industries towards countries where labour is cheaper. Past research has focused on the working conditions of workers employed in these industries. What is missing in this field of research is any inclusion of workers’
own perceptions about their working conditions; how workers themselves evaluate and seek to improve the quality of their working life. This thesis addresses this research gap. More specifically, it examines the potential of flower farm workers in Ethiopia to improve their own working conditions through two strategies: ‘exit’ and ‘voice’. The thesis is structured around three articles. Article 1 seeks to understand why Ethiopian flower farm workers massively quitted or ‘exited’ their formal wage work in the flower farms. Article 2 researches how flower farm managers made sense of these high levels of workers ‘exiting’ their farm and the type of strategies they developed to deal with this labour turnover. Finally, Article 3 examines why workers did not use their ‘voice’ to formulate their grievances and to improve their conditions of employment.
Publications
https://biblio.ugent.be/person/002004111643