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BANANA UPDATE
posted December 13, 1999
[Information provided by the U.S./Labor Education in the Americas Project:
(773) 262-6502, <usglep@igc.org>.]
This is a long alert. If you are pressed for time, please go directly to
the action request.
In this alert:
Del Monte update
Action request / campaign strategy
Analysis
1. Global banana crisis
2. The Ecuador problem
3. Parallel with apparel industry
Chiquita update
Del Monte background information
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DEL MONTE UPDATE
On December 2, Del Monte rejected a proposal by its Guatemalan union,
SITRABI. Submitted two weeks earlier, the proposal sought to resolve a
labor conflict prompted by the company's illegal firing of 900 workers at
three Del Monte plantations in late September.
The union's proposal had accepted Del Monte leasing the three plantations
to contractors - with the condition that wages, benefits and SITRABI union
representation be maintained. The company, hoping to wash its hands of any
responsibility in the matter, refused, saying that the union would have to
take up its concerns directly with the new producers. While Del Monte may
try to distance itself publicly from the Morales plantations now that they
are leased to contractors, Del Monte still owns the land and is the
plantations' only customer. Del Monte has the primary responsibility for
resolving the conflict.
Although Del Monte published an ad in the local Guatemalan newspaper in
October promising not to pull out, in more recent communication with the
union the company is essentially threatening to leave Guatemala if a new
contract for Del Monte's remaining plantations does not roll back previous
gains by workers. By leasing its plantations to a contractor using
non-union employees, Del Monte already has started a rollback of union
gains.
The non-union replacement workers have been receiving wages 20 percent
lower than the union workers received: $4.29 an hour, compared with $5.29
an hour. The replacement workers also receive none of the benefits the
union gained, such as health, education for employees' children and
housing. These are the conditions future workers on the plantations can
expect if the union falls.
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ACTION REQUEST / CAMPAIGN STRATEGY
Note: The following suggested three actions are ranked in order of
priority, for those who have time for only one or two of the actions. We
also are including a fourth special action request for labor rights
activists in Florida and California.
FIRST PRIORITY FOR ACTION: Get Del Monte off the shelves for two weeks.
Requested action: Many of you already have responded to our request to
check whether local supermarkets carry Del Monte bananas. Thank you! We are
now requesting that you follow up on that research and ask any stores that
do carry Del Monte bananas to stop stocking them for two weeks as an act of
solidarity with the workers in Guatemala. We encourage strengthening this
request by mentioning your organizational affiliations and also mentioning
the possibility of leafleting (if applicable, of course). But, even if you
do not have organizational connections or if future leafleting actions are
not a possibility, please do contact local stores by phone or in person and
request that they not stock Del Monte bananas for two weeks. Let us know if
you contact local stores and what the response is. You can make your report
by email <CLR@igc.org> or phone (541) 344-5410.
Note: Whether or not stores agree to keep Del Monte bananas off the shelves
for two weeks, there is an excellent chance that your concerns will be
conveyed to Del Monte. Chain stores become very nervous when they think
that they might become the focus of an organized consumer campaign. Once
the national headquarters of various chains hear that consumers are raising
concerns about Del Monte, management is likely to contact Del Monte and
complain that its bananas are creating public relations problems for the
chain.
Talking points: In October, following the illegal firing of 900 Del Monte
banana workers in Guatemala, banana union leaders were violently forced at
gunpoint to renounce their union and to flee for their lives. Whether or
not Del Monte representatives had anything to do with this serious human
rights violation, the fact remains that the company has profited from this
in its drive to bust the banana worker union in Guatemala. In order to
pressure Del Monte to deal fairly with its workers, we are asking stores
which carry Del Monte not to stock those bananas for two weeks and to let
Del Monte headquarters know why they are taking this action. Stores can
contact Del Monte via phone (305) 520-8400 or fax (305) 442-1059. This
action has the support of the banana workers.
SECOND PRIORITY FOR ACTION: Pressure the Guatemalan government.
Requested action: Contact the Guatemalan Embassy in Washington and urge the
Guatemalan government to take immediate action to prosecute those
responsible for the violent intimidation of union leaders or risk losing
U.S. trade benefits. Ambassador William Stixrud, Embassy of the Republic of
Guatemala, 2200 R Street NW, Washington, DC 20008, phone (202) 745-4952,
fax (202) 745-1908, email <embaguat@sysnet.net>.
Note: In response to campaigns, government offices sometimes deactivate
listed phone or fax lines or email addresses. If one form of communication
with the embassy does not prove functional, please try another.
Talking points: Because of violent intimidation of banana union leaders
following the illegal firing of 900 banana workers in Guatemala and because
the Guatemalan government has taken no credible actions to bring to justice
those responsible for such a serious human rights violation, the U.S. Trade
Representative is considering putting Guatemalan trade benefits on
probation. The Guatemalan unions and human rights advocates in the United
States are in favor of this measure. The Guatemalan government has failed
to take appropriate measures in response to violence against the SITRABI
union and has done nothing to end impunity with respect to assaults on
trade unionists. National Police investigators did not meet with SITRABI
leaders to obtain their formal statements until November 4 - three weeks
after the raid on the union hall - and then took two weeks to issue arrest
warrants for just 9 of the 43 men identified by the union leaders. Then, at
the end of November, a local judge dismissed charges against two of them
and reduced charges against the remaining seven, granting them light bail.
As of early December, no one was behind bars for the blatant and violent
intimidation of union leaders. Moreover, a Guatemalan judge has ruled that
a civil case against Del Monte for illegally firing 900 union workers must
be brought to court as individual cases rather than (as should be the norm
under Guatemalan law) in a collective group. A backlog of 900 separate
cases obviously slows the entire judicial process to a crawl. At the same
time, a trumped-up lawsuit has been filed against the five SITRABI leaders
alleging corruption. These developments demonstrate a bias against the
banana unionists.
THIRD PRIORITY FOR ACTION: Contact Del Monte.
Requested action: Contact Fresh Del Monte Produce and urge the company to
negotiate a resolution with the union. Mr. Mohammad Abu-Ghazaleh, Chief
Executive Officer, Fresh Del Monte Produce, 800 Douglas Entrance, North
Tower, 12th Floor, Coral Gables, FL 33134, phone (305) 520-8400, fax (305)
442-1059. If Del Monte's phone or fax is not working when you contact the
company, please try another of the avenues of communication provided here.
Talking points: Banana union leaders in Guatemala were subjected to violent
intimidation in October. Whether or not Del Monte representatives had any
part in that incident, the company is responsible for labor practices on
the plantations from which it sources. Destroying banana worker unions and
then slashing workers' wages and benefits seems to be Del Monte's
cost-cutting tactic for dealing with the global banana overproduction
crisis. The banana unions and human rights advocates insist that Del Monte
honor its collective bargaining agreements and respond to the crisis in a
way that respects the basic rights of its workers.
SPECIAL REQUEST: For activists living in Florida or California.
Regional actions are being planned in the Miami, FL and Los Angeles / Santa
Barbara, CA areas! Contact the U.S./ Labor Education in the Americas
project for information: phone (773) 262-6502, email
<usleapja@mindspring.com>,
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ANALYSIS
1. GLOBAL BANANA CRISIS
All the major banana companies are losing money and their stock prices are
at extremely low levels, as are the prices of bananas themselves. Industry
analysts say that there is a glut in the banana market because producers
hadn't expected the collapse of the eastern European, Russian and Chinese
markets and also because an anticipated opening of the European Union
market (in response to rulings from the World Trade Organization) has not
taken place. Chiquita, on whose behalf the Clinton administration filed the
WTO suit, had particularly been counting on being able to expand its sales
in the European market.
Del Monte's downsizing in Guatemala is part of a wave of shutdowns, firings
and cost-cutting measures, especially in the Central American banana
industry, in response to the global industry crisis. In addition to firing
1,000 workers in Guatemala, Del Monte also has fired more than 1,000
workers in Costa Rica and is threatening to leave Guatemala altogether if
its union there doesn't give up previous gains.
In November, Dole announced that it would exit Nicaragua and Venezuela
entirely and take measures that would result in laying off 9,000 workers,
most of them production workers in the banana industry. The layoffs will
come not only in Nicaragua and Venezuela, but also Costa Rica, where 4,000
to 5,000 workers could lose their jobs in mid-December when Dole cancels
its contracts with independent suppliers.
Chiquita has taken steps to convert some of its Honduran plantations from
bananas to African palm, which requires far fewer workers, while continuing
to move slowly on rehabilitating most of its plantations destroyed by
Hurricane Mitch in October 1998. Chiquita also reportedly has threatened to
close down one of its Panamanian subsidiaries if the union does not agree
to a reduction in personnel, and rumors of massive layoffs abound.
2. THE ECUADOR PROBLEM
In addition to loss of markets, the other root of the crisis is Ecuador,
according to both the companies and the unions. It is the world's largest
exporter of bananas and has been increasing its market share by selling
bananas at a significantly lower price than exporters in Central America.
It is able to do so in large part because of much lower wages. (Virtually
all the banana worker unions in Ecuador were destroyed 20 years ago.)
Ecuadoran banana workers are paid about $2 to $3 a day, often with no
benefits, in contrast to unionized plantations in Guatemala and Costa Rica,
where workers have been earning closer to $10 a day, plus being provided
with housing, health care and education for their children.
Banana companies like Chiquita say that they cannot continue to compete in
the world market with relatively high wages paid to their Central American
workers as long as Ecuador continues to flood the market with cheap
bananas. And Central American governments are also pointing their fingers
at Ecuador, with Costa Rica recently accusing Ecuador of "social dumping,"
reflecting the devastation that the banana crisis is having on the world's
second leading exporter.
But many Ecuadoran producers also are hurting in the world market. Export
prices of Ecuadoran bananas have been dropping this year, not only
undercutting the world market price but throwing much of the Ecuadoran
banana industry into crisis as well. The Ecuadoran banana industry has a
mix of large and medium plantations along with smaller family-farm type
operations. The crisis is especially damaging to the smaller producers.
The expansion of production in Ecuador represents a shift by the major
banana companies to sites of cheaper production - rather than the emergence
of new banana companies producing cheaply in Ecuador in order to undercut
the existing banana giants. However, so far the various companies are not
necessarily equally represented in Ecuador.
3. PARALLEL WITH APPAREL INDUSTRY
There is a rough parallel between developments in the Central American
banana industry and the U.S. clothing industry. In both cases, production
is being shifted from comparatively well-paid, unionized jobs to low-wage,
non-unionized countries, except that in the case of bananas, Central
American workers are losing rather than gaining jobs through the shift. In
another difference, unlike the apparel industry, only five companies
control 90% of the world's banana trade.
The long-run implications for the Central American trade union movement are
ominous. Historically, banana unions have represented the strongest private
sector unions in the region and in more than 50 years of struggle have
achieved enormous advances against the major multinational banana
companies. However, those gains are rapidly being eroded. At least in the
short term, that process is likely to continue unless some national
disaster strikes the Ecuadoran banana industry.
The way in which Del Monte has handled the Sitrabi case in Guatemala
strongly suggests that the banana companies will use the global crisis of
overproduction as a cover to severely weaken, if not destroy, their unions.
UPDATE: CHIQUITA REFUSES WORKER RIGHTS AGREEMENT
Chiquita has notified the Coordination of Latin American Banana Worker
Unions (COLSIBA) that it is not willing to negotiate a proposed
path-breaking regional worker rights agreement intended to resolve worker
complaints about Chiquita labor practices. COLSIBA intends to discuss with
its Northern partners early next year a strategy in response to Chiquita's
rejection.
Meanwhile, a long-standing impasse at two Chiquita suppliers in Guatemala
(the Arizona and Alabama plantations) remains unresolved. Although Chiquita
did intervene in this case after initially refusing to do so, it says that
an offer to rehire 80 to 100 of the 240 workers illegally fired in early
1998 is the best offer that will be made, in part because the two
plantations were recently flooded for the second time in two years,
creating additional economic strains for the owner, Victor Morales
Haeussler.
Chiquita was subject to a brief campaign in August when its Honduran union
SITRATERCO opposed the company's plans to convert three plantations from
bananas into African palm, which requires only about 15 percent of the
workforce needed for banana plantations. The union and the company
negotiated a resolution to ensure that displaced workers could continue
working at other Chiquita plantations, but the union was unable to obtain a
pledge from Chiquita to halt any further conversion.
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DEL MONTE BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Following the illegal firing of over 900 workers on Del Monte plantations
in Guatemala, the banana union SITRABI planned to use workers' unpaid time
off to mount protests. The walk out was thwarted when 200 men armed with
high caliber and assault weapons surrounded union headquarters the night
before the planned walk out. The armed men forced the five executive
committee members and 20 union members to call off the strike, resign from
the union and flee from there homes under threat of death. The union
members and their families are now in safe homes in Guatemala City.
The illegal firings and violent repression have prompted an international
outcry. The U.N. agency overseeing the peace process in Guatemala, MINUGUA,
called the incident one of the most serious violations of human rights in
post-war Guatemala and urged the government to investigate the incident and
arrest those responsible.
It is difficult to ascertain the degree to which local Del Monte personnel
may have been involved in the violent intimidation. Local experts say that,
in a small company town like Morales (where the incident occurred), it
would have been highly unlikely for the local company representatives not
to at least have known what was happening. SITRABI workers are calling for
the resignation of a Del Monte engineer who they say was seen talking to a
member of the local chamber of commerce two hours before the armed men
showed up at union headquarters. Also, BANDEGUA, the Del Monte subsidiary
in Guatemala, had in hand the coerced resignations and accepted them until
international protests forced the company to backtrack.