Banana Worker Justice

USLEAP released a full report on its conclusions from a fact-finding mission to Guatemala in July. The report details the status of worker rights under the new government of Alvaro Colom.

Dole remains public enemy number one for the Coordination of Latin American Banana Worker Unions (COLSIBA), the European Banana Action Network (EUROBAN), USLEAP and other campaigners seeking to stop t

On April 23, the AFL-CIO and Guatemalan trade unions filed the first CAFTA worker rights complaint since the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement came into effect in 2006.

The September 23 murder of Marco Tulio Ramirez, a leader of the Del Monte banana union SITRABI in Guatemala, sparked international protests joined by USLEAP and local charges of possible Del Monte com

Banana unions continue to support an international campaign against Chiquita’s chief rival, Dole.

In September a U.S. judge accepted a plea agreement under which Chiquita will pay a $25 million fine for having paid protection money to Colombia’s leading paramilitary group between 1997 and 2004.

Chiquita, its Latin American banana unions, and the International Union of Foodworkers (IUF) engaged in a series of high-level meetings in June and August that both company and some union participants

A former paramilitary leader testified in Colombia that all banana companies have paid paramilitary groups, naming Dole, Del Monte and Chiquita. In March 2007, Chiquita agreed to pay a $25 million fine to the U.S. Justice Department for having paid protection money to Colombia's leading paramilitary group between 1997 and 2004.

Growing frustration with Chiquita's failure to address worker rights concerns at plantations in Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica prompted Latin American banana unions to issue a broad-ranging alert to groups in the U.S. and Europe in early June, asking for international support.

COLSIBA, the IUF, EUORBAN, USLEAP and others continue to support an international campaign against Dole that was launched in 2006 demanding that Dole respect worker rights.