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.

The Coordination of Latin American Banana Workers Unions (COLSIBA) sent out the June 4 alert reporting Chiquita's failure to negotiate collective bargaining agreements at plantations in Guatemala, poor working conditions and the absence of contracts at its Nicaraguan suppliers, and a series of problems in Honduras, including the failure to conclude negotiations at one plantation, new productivity demands, and rejection of union organizing at a plantation that was unionized prior to being temporarily shut-down after a tropical storm hit in late 2005. Costa Rican unions cited a litany of complaints and in May launched a public campaign in support of two workers who had been fired for complaining about being exposed to pesticides. The two workers were reinstated in early June.

The public alert marks a new and tense stage in relations between Chiquita and its unions. In 2001, Chiquita signed a path-breaking worker rights framework agreement with COLSIBA and the International Union of Foodworkers (IUF). It is the only such agreement signed between a U.S. transnational and agricultural unions in the South. The signing of the agreement came after a grassroots campaign led in Europe by the European Banana Action Network with support in the U.S. led by USLEAP. The agreement capped a major turn around in Chiquita's relationship with unions and critics.

In its alert, COLSIBA accused Chiquita of violating the terms of the agreement but did not call for a break of the agreement. However, under the terms of the agreement, public campaigning is a step of last resort. In response to the public alert, Chiquita scheduled an emergency meeting with the IUF and COLSIBA later in June.