By Kate Morioka, Research Project Manager
Stocks of tuna fish are predicted to move away from PNG to the south-east, towards Fiji and Vanuatu, as a result of increasing sea temperature caused by global warming.
Some say this is an opportune time to fish as much tuna as possible, before they swim away from existing waters. Such perception is encouraging fishing companies in PNG to ramp up their fishing and associated processing activities, having some flow-on impacts on women and their families.
I was sitting in Nancy’s kitchen, listening to her speak about her research on women employed at the RD Tuna cannery in Madang. Nancy is a respected anthropologist who has been living and researching in PNG for almost 20 years.
“The cannery”, she explained “is owned by a Filipino company, and is a major employer of ‘local women of child-bearing age’.” Seven days a week, 24 hours a day, women are hired on rosters to work at the cannery, being paid a sub-minimum wage with limited health and safety standards in place.
Nancy tells me that young women in Madang believe that working at the cannery is the first step in their pathway to formal employment. The PNG Government is encouraging economic growth and women across the country are aspiring to become the ‘modern career woman’, earning a living in the formal sector.
Women are desirable workers in tuna canneries because of their small dexterous hands required to sort and clean fish. Some may work without gloves and appropriate protective gear in unsafe conditions.
A female worker at the cannery earns about 80 kinas per fortnight (AUD$35) – the majority of women’s earnings are spent on vanity goods (e.g. make up and beauty products), clothing and PMV (Public Motor Vehicle which are local buses).
Nancy says that women are better off selling their surplus crops at the local market than working at the cannery. Families that have a mother, daughter or aunt working at the cannery have less food than those that don’t. This is because women play an important role in gathering and supplying food. Women who work at the cannery are not able to contribute as much food as they would if they didn’t work at the cannery because they will have time to spend on their home gardens. Also, the type of food that working women are contributing is usually imported products, such as tinned fish, noodle, rice, rather than traditional food sources, which ultimately affects the nutrition of all family members.
At the end of the day women are earning a meagre salary in unsafe working environments and their families are worse off. Is this really a path to formal employment and economic liberation for women?
Want to find out more about women in tuna canneries? Have a look at Nancy’s blog www.nancysullivan.typepad.com
