Banana Unions Target Gender Discrimination, Sexual Harassment; Agreement with Chiquita Reached

The Coordination of Latin American Banana Unions (COLSIBA) and the International Union of Foodworkers (IUF) have reached an agreement with Chiquita to negotiate a new gender discrimination and sexual harassment policy. A working group has been established with the goal of finalizing the amendment by the end of 2011, to be incorporated into a regional framework agreement signed by the three parties in 2001. 

The IUF stated, “We recognize that Chiquita has a well-developed internal policy seeking to eliminate the problem [of sexual harassment and gender discrimination] but its willingness to sit with unions regionally and internationally to develop a common agreement to drive this practice out of Chiquita workplaces is welcome and will have a real impact on the ground.”

The advance came this spring in response to by COLSIBA for an International Women’s Day campaign that targeted major transnational banana companies.  USLEAP and the International Labor Rights Fund (ILRF) supported the request in the U.S. while members of the European Banana Action Network (EUROBAN) did likewise in Europe.  

Senior Vice President Manuel Rodriguez provided a lengthy response from Chiquita in mid-March to USLEAP and others who contacted the company that detailed its policies and practices, including the training of 12,000 employees in Latin America in 2010 on harassment prevention.  Chiquita also reported that during the 2007-2010 period, nine employees were dismissed for which sexual harassment behavior was fully or partially implicated.  In response to COLSIBA concerns about lack of employment opportunities for women, Chiquita stated that approximately 20% of its employees in Latin America are women and that there has been a “notable increase” in women in supervisory  positions. 

COLSIBA responded on March 30 that Chiquita continued to employ harassers and that 50 women had lost their jobs in the 2009-2010 period, demanding that the issues be addressed more adequately at an upcoming April meeting to review compliance with the 2001 framework agreement.  At the April meeting, Chiquita, COLSIBA, and the IUF reached the new agreement to negotiate a policy to be included in the framework agreement.

Dole Response Rejected as Inadequate

Dole Vice President Sylvain Cuperlier responded promptly to interventions by USLEAP and others with a letter saying that the company gives priority to hiring women in its banana packing area to offset the relative lack of women in other areas like harvesting.  Dole said it also gives priority to hiring single mothers as a way to provide them a source of income and that it has developed training programs for women on how to open and run businesses.  Dole noted that international conventions and many national laws prohibit sexual harassment and discrimination and, like Chiquita, it conducts training for workers that address sexual harassment as well as community educational programs on domestic and sexual abuse. 

However, COLSIBA rejected Dole’s assertions in a June 2011 memo sent to USLEAP and EUROBAN, stating that “we cannot attest to the projects and programs that Mr. Cuperlier mentions since we have no knowledge of the existence of a monitoring program given that there are no unions that can give testimony about said projects at this company.  What we know about are the high levels of union repression in the same zone the Mr. Cuperlier mentions—what has been clearly demonstrated is the company’s clear rejection of union organization.”

Both Chiquita and Dole agreed to COLSIBA’s request to include gender discrimination and sexual harassment as issues to be addressed by the World Banana Forum, which, among other things, has tentative plans to conduct a study documenting the severity of the problem.

No Response from Del Monte

Fresh Del Monte did not respond at all to USLEAP and interventions from others.  The ILRF also targeted Fyffes but also received no response.