Video - Fair Wages: A Century of Struggle and Triumph
“Fair Wages” “Receiving a fair wage was just a dream. My name is Antônio, and I was one of the first to raise my voice back in 1930. “I worked in the fields, and the landowner paid whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted. Many times, we’d go home not knowing if we’d have food the next day—literally. It was so inhumane that sick workers had to be treated together in a barn while the rest kept working. That’s when a rural union was sort of formed. We started negotiating, went on strike, faced threats, but in the end, we managed to establish a minimum wage to buy food and medicine. “If you’re getting paid at the end of the month today, it’s because people have been fighting for it for over a century. Thank you, union.”