New Report Faults Dole on World Decent Work Day

Banana unions and their allies released a new report on October 7 criticizing Dole’s failure to respect worker rights in Latin America.  The report was released on World Decent Work Day, a public education campaign led by the international trade union movement and others.

The report is an update and assessment on the company’s actions since Dole, behind the smokescreen was published by the same groups in 2006.  The new report focuses on the company’s actions, or lack of actions, to respect worker rights in four countries in Latin America:  Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, and Peru.

An accompanying statement, Decent Work Starts with Real Trade Union Freedom...But Dole Continues Resisting Changes in its Practices, notes that Dole has shown some openness to dialogue since the first report was issued but that talk must turn into action.     

The report, published in English and Spanish, was issued jointly by the Coordination of Latin American Banana Unions (COLSIBA), the International Union of Foodworkers (IUF), Banafair in Germany, Banana Link in the UK, CGT in France, 3F in Denmark, Peuples Solidaires in France, and USLEAP in the US.  

Elsewhere in Latin America, Dole also faces a lawsuit filed earlier this year on behalf of 73 victims of murdered trade unionists and farmers in the banana-growing region of Colombia.   The lawsuit alleges that Dole paid paramilitaries to carry out assassinations and terror tactics in the 1990s and first part of this decade in order to protect its banana operations.  

In Honduras, where its workers have some of best contracts in the industry, Dole has refused to condemn the June 2009 coup.  Dole was also the target of a multi-year campaign in support of flower workers in Colombia until it sold its Latin American flower operations at the beginning of 2009.