International Centre for Trade Union Rights

Latin American banana workers on the front lineAuthor(s): ALISTAIR SMITHSource: International Union Rights, Vol. 6, No. 2, Focus on the Americas (1999), pp. 6-7Published by: International Centre for Trade Union RightsStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41935752 .

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OPINION □ SET-BACK FOR BANANA WORKERS

Latin American banana

workers on the front line

I

and Hurricane

themselves

accept which the

position

are

workers

companies

bargaining

...even

very

plantation

unionised

having

suit changes

Mitch,

weak

after

only

find in

the

to

a

unionised

plantation workers find

themselves in a

very weak

bargaining position after

Hurricane Mitch, and are having to

accept changes which suit only the companies

ALISTAIR SMITH is coordinator of Banana Link in England

IN Mitch tation

the

workers dealt last week

the and severest

of

their

October,

communities blow to

Tropical banana

this

Storm plan- cen-

Mitch dealt the severest blow to banana plan- tation workers and their communities this cen-

tury. Some 30,000 workers were laid off across the region after the hurricane had flattened plan- tations belonging to Chiquita, Dole, Del Monte and national producers. The Honduran industry, controlled entirely by the two US-based banana giants, was nearly completely wiped out. Some plantations cannot be rehabilitated, simply because all the productive soil was washed away.

Although the devastation of Mitch is out of the news now, the majority of people in Honduras, Nicaragua and Guatemala have years of recon- struction ahead of them. But because of their importance to these economies - and, to a cer- tain extent, because of pressure from the unions and their international allies - the multinational banana companies have been propelled into both the humanitarian and rehabilitation operations from very early on.

Chiquita in Honduras It is becoming clear, however, that even the unionised plantation workers find themselves in a very weak bargaining position after Mitch, and are having to accept changes which suit only the companies. In Honduras for example, the coun- try most affected by Mitch - and where half the production was controlled by Chiquita - the union SITRATERCO has had to sign an agreement enshrining redundancies of some of its member- ship. After nearly 45 years of struggle against a hostile company, SITRATERCO - the only union organising Chiquita workers - had become one of the strongest banana workers' unions in Latin America. SITRATERCO had long-established col- lective bargaining agreements for its 7,000 mem- bers on Chiquita farms, and enjoyed some of the best housing and healthcare facilities in the region. For several years, the union had been able to fend off attempts by the company to introduce so-called "Total Quality Management" practices, designed to increase labour productivity, but without offering additional remuneration.

But when workers and their families had been without income for several weeks, the company knew that the union leadership would be under such pressure to accept any rehabilitation pack- age as soon as possible that the changes in work- ing practices could be pushed through. At a cru- cial stage of negotiations in January, the company even threatened to abandon Honduras altogether unless SITRATERCO signed on the dotted line straight away. The agreement that was finally signed in early March therefore represents a sub- stantial weakening of conditions and benefits for workers. It remains to be seen whether it also means effective cuts in wages too. Certainly all

the signs are that Chiquita intends to try and introduce as much contract labour as possible in the process of rehabilitation of its Honduran farms, thereby increasing pressure on the union to make further concessions.

Chiquita workers' wider demands Following media exposure in September of the fact that Chiquita was unwilling to meet with its unions from five countries across the region, the company agreed to hear the demands of the Co- ordination of Latin American Banana Workers' Unions (COLSIBA) at a meeting in Guatemala City. But Mitch inevitably changed the agenda: the meeting came less than two weeks after the destruction and necessarily focused on seeking a commitment to rehabilitate. The unions did pre- sent a "Petition of Demands" on freedom of asso- ciation, collective bargaining, health, safety and environment from workers across the region, but Chiquita has so far failed to respond to any of the issues raised by workers. An international cam- paign to get Chiquita to start negotiating a "Regional Workers' Rights Agreement" with COL- SIBA is now under way in both Europe and the United States.

Away from the devastation of Mitch, especially in Guatemala and Costa Rica, workers' basic rights to join unions at all continue ļp be violated daily.

Harassment and arrests in Guatemala For some time now, Guatemalan unions have been reporting their suspicions that certain sec- tions of business and government have been con- spiring to prevent trade union organisation wher- ever it may occur, especially in the private sector. Since the beginning of March, four local and national leaders representing banana workers in Dole and Chiquita subsidiaries, have been arrest- ed without charges, including the UNSITRAGUA lawyer, Jorge Estrada y Estrada, who spoke at ICTUR's conference in London last year. It has emerged that there may be a hit-list' of up to 150 trade unionists being targeted for arrest.

New measures of repression in Costa Rica In Costa Rica, where all the banana companies - national as well as transnational - are violating basic union rights on a regular basis, the last few months have seen the introduction of a new phe- nomenon: security gates at the entrance to plan- tations, especially in the case of Chiquita. These gates which are staffed by private security guards are used to control the movement of workers in and out of the plantations, particularly unionised workers. In recent weeks, union leaders have been prevented from entering several Chiquita plantations.

INTERNATIONAL union rights Page 6 Volume 6 Issue 2 1999

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Meanwhile, inside the plantations, Hurricane Mitch has had a perverse knock-on effect on workers in the Costa Rican industry: a new wave of several hundred thousand Nicaraguan and Honduran migrants has arrived in Costa Rica, fur- ther putting pressure on the country's weakening social infrastructure. Some of these migrants are finding work in banana plantations, but in condi- tions described by unions as "a new slavery". A permanent worker is given a specific area to com- plete a given task and is then free to take on oth- ers. This is where a new breed of 'tied workers' (trabajadores arrimados) comes in. The perma- nent worker is responsible for paying the other - usually migrant - workers that he takes on, from out of his own pocket. In practice, this means that the tied workers' have absolutely no rights at all, whilst the wage received by the permanent workers themselves works out at about 50 per cent less than what they used to receive.

100 years is enough! In the Atlantic zone of our country, day after day, Chiquita Brands International is violating the constitutional right of Costa Ricans (and of all workers regardless of their country of ori- gin) to trade union freedom; the right to free association is violated as the company contin- ues persecuting workers who join trade unions; they pay low wages, and use sub-con- tractors as a way of avoiding paying the social benefits to which workers are entitled in this country, thereby undermining any job security; they have put up security' gates staffed by pri- vate guards to control the movements of work- ers; they manipulate public opinion in order to show that they are an exemplary company which gives employment and contributes to the development of Costa Rica and of the Costa Rican family.

Chiquita goes on polluting rivers, streams, canals and forests in the area where it pro- duces. They go on applying toxic chemicals which damage the health of human beings and the environment, producing only a so-called "eco-OK" banana for international markets. Their bananas are, however, as contaminated - if not more so - than those of other companies in the sector.

Chiquita goes on sacking workers - invent- ing excuses for dismissal - just for defending their rights and joining a union. Chiquita con- tinues being bullying, arrogant and manipula- tive towards genuine banana workers' organisa- tions, as it has been for 100 years.

We therefore call on the national and interna- tional community to continue giving support to

our legitimate demand for social justice in Chiquita' s banana plantations in Costa Rica and Central America, whereby there is trade union freedom and collective bargaining in their plan- tations.

We also call on the company to start its next 100 years with a change of attitude and sit down with the genuine representatives of workers to resolve the issues which are already known to the senior management in the USA and to national representatives. Only by accept- ing the serious challenge of making a fresh start, where basic workers' rights are respect- ed, could we talk about producing and export- ing a socially just banana.

The banana trade union movement has four wishes on the occasion of this company's birth- day: ■ THE PRESENCE OF MIND to accept once and for all the responsibility for the company's far from honourable history; ■ THE UNDERSTANDING to recognise that a new beginning can only happen in cooperation with - rather than in conflict with - human beings; ■ THE DECENCY to respect trade union rights in all its plantations; and ■ THE CORPORATE VISION to stop destroy- ing natural resources and the environment.

Extract from "Communique to National and International Public Opinion on the Centenary of Chiquita Brands International "

by the Costa Rican Coordination of Banana Workers' Unions, 30th March 1999 .

CONFERENCE -

Workers rights

are human rights

Celebrate 50th anniversary of ILO Conventions

Main speaker: John Monks, General Secretary British TUC

Other speakers including international trade

union guests to be announced

Saturday 19th June 1999 10am to 4pm

Congress House, Great Russell Street, London

Trade union delegates and human rights activists welcome

For further information write to International Centre for Trade Union Rights, 177 Abbeville Road, London SW4 9RL. tel: 0171 498 4700; fax: 0171 498 0611; email ictur@gn.apc.org

Organised by ICTUR, Southern & Eastern Region TUC, War on Want, World Development Movement, Institute of Employment Rights,

Page 7 Volume 6 Issue 2 1999 INTERNATIONAL union rights

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