juntos en accion - together in action - agir ensemble

My name is Cristian Smith, I’m 21. I live in a San Felix neighbourhood, Bolivar State, Venezuela. I have had several jobs, as a bricklayer, a carpenter, a guard, and now I have been working as a carter at the San Felix market for eight years.
Our working conditions here are very harsh: we are exploited (we work from 5 to 11 am without a break); the police mistreat us; we have no fixed place of work; we have to load and unload large quantities of heavy stuff without any safety or health measures; in some cases, what we carry is stolen; our wages are not stable. I earn an average of 40,000 bolivars per day ($18.6), and in most cases much less, which isn’t enough to study, take a holiday, or buy medicines when I get sick. This is just enough to buy food for my family and give my two-year-old daughter what she needs.
I dream that our work is respected, valued by the customers, the family. I dream that we have a fixed place where we can eat and rest quietly, a place that we could paint. I dream that the State institutions provide us with balanced and cheap food. I long for an organisation that brings carters together and for magistrates who could solve the problems we have among ourselves. But most of all, I dream that I can leave this work one day and get a job in a company with better conditions. We have meetings with our YCW friends and the Ministry of Labour, and we are planning to set up a cooperative or a carters’ organization. We have had opportunities to talk about our problems and to consider possible solutions. We have been given t-shirts to identify ourselves, and we are preparing some workshops on health and safety at work. In this way we hope to improve our reality at work.