“We Need the Government To Turn Its Attention To Us”

As a union leader in your sector (floristry/gardening), how does the flower industry contribute to local development? 
Our sector contributes significantly to local development by primarily fostering youth employment by professionalizing and channeling the workforce, thus providing structured jobs and reducing the number of unregulated floaters. Economically, it supports small gardeners and floral entrepreneurs, with the potential to scale up into larger horizons. However, we pray the government heeds our appeal to finance production and consume locally produced flowers, thereby injecting more capital into the local economy. Furthermore, the work enhances the local environment, making it very healthy and attractive, which positively impacts urban aesthetics, and the union's advocacy has successfully led to infrastructure development like the construction of the market shelter that generates income from taxes paid by the market vendors.

 
You mentioned issues with non-payment of florists’ services. How does the union respond to this plight?
It is a serious issue when our florists and gardeners complete their labour for organizations, and are being denied their due pay, often not because they lack money, but because they are "mean." We have tried every possible way. They give us appointments they do not honour, and sometimes even insult us. We often leverage our union structure to address this because our members deserv...