“May the pleasure of drinking mate not rest on the slavery of the tarefero.” The phrase written on flags and sung in popular songs was a symbol of the struggle of the workers who harvested yerba mate at the beginning of the last decade. It is estimated that Argentines consume around 100 liters of mate, the national drink. However, behind the infusion considered vital for millions – equivalent to morning coffee for many Argentines – there are undignified living conditions, long working hours with declining salaries, child labor, an unhealthy habitat and diseases. Furthermore, today growers fear that the deregulation of the economy promoted by the far-right Government of Javier Milei will affect the sector and lead to massive layoffs.
When she was 12 years old, Sonia Lemos (Misiones, 43 years old) accompanied her father to the herb garden where he worked for the first time. “I started as a guaina (young), I didn't have the opportunity to study. I had to go no matter what, we were ten brothers. There I learned everything about weed,” she says. Thirty years later, the body takes its toll on the time spent harvesting, a sacrificial activity where heavy tons of leaves are carried in days that can exceed 12 hours, regardless of whether the sun's rays heat the red earth of the north. Argentina, or that the winter cold produces frosts that freeze the bones. Lemos, who for more than a decade has been the general secretary of the Monte Carlo Tareferos Union – a city located two hours from Iguazú -, today suffers from herniated discs, acute pain in one of her wrists and months ago she became ill with pneumonia. , which led to an argument with his employer, who did not want to recognize that it was an occupational disease. “Ours is a very complicated sector,” she explains in an interview with América Futura.
Green gold
Mate is the national drink of Argentines. Between January and November 2023, around 735,122 tons of weed were processed, according to the Yerba Mat Instituteand. In the country, more mate is drunk than coffee, beer or wine and each package is priced higher, even more so after the inflationary spike registered since December. In supermarkets, a kilogram is available for 3,400 Argentine pesos (4.5 dollars at the official exchange rate).
The other side is eloquent: a yerbatero receives 18,600 Argentine pesos for each ton of yerba harvested (about 22 dollars). It is estimated that six tons can be collected per month and salaries amount to about 200,000 pesos per month, half of what one must earn in the country to not be considered poor, according to official statistics for December. In the yerba-growing region—the provinces of Misiones and Corrientes—it is estimated that there are about 18,000 workers, although the figure could be higher if those who are not registered are counted. But in addition, they are only active between four and six months of the year, during the harvest season, and then they become unemployed and receive unemployment benefits.
The day of a tarefero who does not live in the yerbal area begins at 4 in the morning traveling long distances in trucks to reach the crops, and can extend for more than 12 hours, depending on the season and the production area. Many spend several days in the establishments, far from their homes, in precarious camps where they sleep outdoors or with minimal protection from the cold, heat or rain, without toilets or kitchens.
Rubén Ortíz (55 years old), teacher and representative of the Tareferos Union, warns that today those who cultivate yerba mate “live like slaves.” “Hundreds of colleagues are hungry,” he laments in dialogue with América Futura, and describes the living conditions as unworthy, even though there have been improvements in recent years. “There are no State controls, transportation is bad to get to the fields, there is a lack of adequate tools and work clothes. They eat crops that have just been sprayed with pesticides and there are no safety and hygiene measures,” he says.
Ortiz was a rural teacher in a school attended by the children of tareferos and became one of the union leaders after a crisis in the sector after 2004, in a context of foreignization of lands that led to the fact that in a few years The hectares planted with grass were reduced from 8,000 to 4,000 and replaced with pine trees for cellulose production, which caused massive layoffs. In 2008, workers created the union amid complaints about poor wages, child employment and slavery. “The problem today – he reflects – is that workers do not participate in the income. There is a culture of exploitation. The tareferos live very poorly, many of them at 42 years old are no longer useful because they have many health problems.”
Lemos says that in the last decade they obtained greater recognition, although he clarifies that it was always the product of protests. “Before we loaded the 40, 50-kilogram frays by hand, and we managed to have hydraulic loaders. There was also a lot of gender violence and greater respect was achieved,” he values. “In 2023, there were many adolescents who began to work as taskmasters because they do not have the possibility of studying, there are few resources, so the parents go to the court and give authorization,” he laments. One of those young people is his eldest son. “He left school and went to work to help the house because I couldn't give him everything they should have,” he says.
In Argentina, child labor is prohibited by law and in the rural sector only young people between 16 and 18 years old are authorized to be employed with the consent of their parents. Although there are more surveys now, for many years it was common to see children in the grasslands. In June 2023, a series of inspections revealed “indications of labor exploitation” in two marijuana cultivation establishments in Misiones, according to the Reg
istry of Rural Workers and Employers, which detected that there was a 15-year-old boy and five other teenagers. fulfilling tasks.
Pedro Galeano (Misiones, 25 years old) began working as a tarefero with his father when he was 16 years old, a few months after leaving school. “Now we are stopped, the harvest begins in March-April,” he responds to América Futura's query. While there is no harvest, he earns his living as a laborer on farms in his city, Monte Carlo. “This was the only job he could do. At first I went twice a week because I got tired,” recalls the young man. “If the crop is far away, we leave at 4 in the morning. We arrived at the yerbal two hours later and worked for eight or nine hours. Now the situation has improved a little, but when I started I had to load the truck with the threads by hand. Now there are more machines,” he says. “I don't like the job very much, but it is the only job alternative,” he says.
Challenges and fears
Workers fear that the deregulation of the economy promoted by President Milei will harm the sector, with the closure of establishments and massive layoffs. The signs are not minor: the far-right repealed by decree the Yerba Mate Institute, created by law in 2002 to regulate the production and marketing chain. According to small producers and cooperatives, the measure provides facilities for large capital to devastate the sector and workers consider it an affront to their basic rights.
“There are 17,500 small producers who are in danger and the national drink may end up being produced with 80% slave labor. This should embarrass us,” Ortíz is outraged.
The unionist believes that to improve conditions, an educational proposal that professionalizes the activity should be widespread. “Training is not enough, there must be technicians in production, processing and marketing. If they do not train the one who dries the grass, even if they incorporate machines, essential, artisanal knowledge is lost,” he reasons.
Lemos emphasizes that they will defend jobs “to the last.” “It is a fair fight, we fight for our dignity. There are many families that can be left without bread on the table,” she adds. “Those of us who harvest the grass – she says excitedly – do a very hard job, it is the only one in the area, most of us do not have studies, we are very humble. Every time you drink mate, remember all the tareferos, it is a herb that is obtained with a lot of sacrifice and pain.”
#tareferos #yerba #mate #growers #expose #39B #side39 #Argentine #drink
