Retirement and livelihood system from agricultural worker women: 'Ear daily, earn daily, we do not have the right to live'

NEW Party Women's Branch Chairman and Osmaniye Deputy Asu Kaya visited women agricultural workers in a field in Osmaniye.

Stating that they work for a daily wage of 1,400 lira, the women said:

"We have been working for years with nothing in hand. It has become expensive. We are not getting better from year to year, we are getting worse. We work to make ends meet. A kitchen cylinder costs 1,400 liras. I buy a cylinder with a daily wage. Earn daily, eat daily. It rained and you couldn't work, no."

Asu Kaya also said, "Every woman who works at home, in the field, in the vineyard, in the garden should be able to retire when the day comes. She should not depend on her husband's hand or the pocket money her child will give her. This state should stand behind women."

Women working in the fields stated that they were tired before they even came to the fields, that they came to the fields after doing laundry, washing dishes, and doing household chores at home. A female employee said, "If we do not work, we are hungry. We have to work. I am six people at home. My children are also here. We cannot find a job, work is limited. Our women do not work. We also want to work in an insured job. Since this government came, we have never been able to give our child pocket money if we sent him to the service. If we gave him pocket money, we could not give him pocket money. It was far away, he did not study, they did not go. My child says, 'If you had given me pocket money, I would have studied.' The President is talking and explaining us, but he is talking about us." "He doesn't see it," he said.

Women also requested retirement. An agricultural worker said:

"Our children will not take care of us, our spouse may die. Our children will give us money and we will go to the market. We will pay rent, we will provide electricity. Where will we pay it? We have nothing. We get up at 05.00 in the morning, feed our children and husband and come here. At 17.00 in the evening, we will go home again, cook food and cook tea. We will wake up at 05.00 in the morning. We do not have the right to live. We have been working like this for a lifetime. It has been 35 years since I got married. "I have been working for 35 years, I have nothing. I have spent 15 years raising my children. We also want a pension. They don't ask about our situation when they are done. They should ask us. We will vote for Erdoğan for years. What have we done for him? But I won't vote for him from now on."