Dole To Close Unionized Flower Plantation

In a bitter blow culminating a two-year campaign against flower workers organizing for justice, Dole has announced that it will close its largest, most unionized plantation in Colombia. While the company defended the action as part of a general restructuring of its money-losing flower business, Dole has refused repeated requests for documentation to substantiate its claims that the decision to close the plantation, Splendor Corzo, was based solely on economic grounds.

Absent documentation justifying the targeting of Splendor Corzo, USLEAP, the flower worker union, Sintrasplendor, and the industrial union to which it is affiliated, Untraflores, have denounced the closing as the final act in Dole's long-running campaign against the union. The union, joined by USLEAP, the International Labor Rights Fund, and others, has urged the Colombian government to deny Dole's request for authorization to close the plantation.

Dole announced its retrenchment plans on Colombus Day, saying it would close two plantations in Colombia (out of more than 20) and exit Ecuador, eliminating nearly 2,200 jobs, 900 of them in Ecuador. Of the 1,300 jobs in Colombia being lost to closings, nearly all, 1,200, come from Splendor Corzo. Dole is not closing Splendor's second and smaller plantation, El Rosal, at which Sintrasplendor is not as well represented. Dole also said it would reduce employment on its remaining Colombian plantations by another 1,275 workers but it's clear that Splendor Corzo will take the brunt of the cuts.

Dole has asserted that the Splendor Corzo plantation has been more unproductive than its other plantations in Colombia. When USLEAP continued to press for documentation, Dole stated that the Splendor Corzo plantation required 8% more labor and suffered a higher rate of disease than other plantations but the company did not provide documentation to substantiate its assertions.

Since its founding in November 2004, Sintrasplendor has faced an anti-union campaign from Dole that has included illegal firings, a legal challenge to the union's registration, discriminatory treatment of union members, threats to close the plantation, and signing a contract with an industry-supported union to block Sintrasplendor. The international campaign forced Dole to make a number of promises to deal with the union in good faith but the promises went unfulfilled.

Closing Threatens US Trade Benefits for Flower Industry

Dole's decision to close a plantation in the midst of a labor struggle comes at an awkward time for the Colombian flower industry, which is a major beneficiary of trade benefits provided under the Andean Trade Partnership Act (ATPA) that are due to expire at the end of 2006. ATPA benefits are by law conditioned on the exporting country taking steps to improve worker rights.

On November 27, Representatives Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Barbara Lee (D-CA), and Linda Sanchez (D-CA), wrote Dole Chief Operating Officer Richard Dahl stating that the absence of basic rights in Colombia's flower sector and Dole's closing of Splendor raised serious questions about congressional approval of extending trade benefits to Colombia's flower industry. The letter was sent to the Colombian flower industry association (Asocoflores), the U.S. Trade Representative, the Colombian government, and was quickly reported in the Colombian press. At press time, the lame duck Congress had not yet taken up an extension of ATPA benefits.