Chiquita

Chiquita is the oldest banana transnational operating in Latin America, and the most heavily unionized. Formerly the infamous United Fruit Company, Chiquita was the primary target of banana worker rights and environmental activists, especially in Europe, until 2001.

Chiquita Signs Agreement with its Unions, Advances Noted

In June 2001, Chiquita signed a path-breaking agreement with its unions in Latin America and the International Union of Foodworkers to respect worker rights. The agreement signaled a major shift in Chiquita's relations to its unions and its critics, and came after a three-year effort that began in 1998.

The agreement has been used to secure recognition of the first new banana union in Central America in years (in Honduras) and to organize hundreds of new banana workers in Colombia. But it has not prevented Chiquita from closing plantations in Guatemala and Honduras, scaling back its direct-owned operations in Panama, or selling off its Colombian operations. Chiquita still has far more unionized banana workers than any other transnational; consequently, a much greater percentage of the workers who produce Chiquita bananas are paid decent wages and benefits compared to those of its competitors.

Chiquita unions periodically request international intervention with Chiquita and have at times threatened to abandon the agreement but as of January 2012 chosen to remain at the table.

USLEAP and Chiquita

USLEAP campaigned to urge Chiquita to negotiate the 2001 worker rights agreement, and has supported specific worker struggles before and since the agreement was signed. One of the biggest conflicts since the agreement was signed was in Honduras in 2006. The unions also report on-going conflicts in Costa Rica. In 2007 and again in early 2011, banana unions reported violations of the agreement and asked USLEAP and other international supporters to intercede with Chiquita. Some of the union issues were subsequently addressed; some remain pending and periodically new conflicts emerge with Chiquita.  As of 2012, Chiquita remains the only transnational banana company with which banana unions have a regional worker rights framework agreement.   

Chiquita and Colombia

In 2003, Chiquita reportedly informed the U.S. Justice Department that it had for years been paying armed groups in Colombia money to protect its banana operations and its largely unionized employees.  As a consequence, Chiquita sold off its Colombian operations and in 2007 agreed to pay a fine of $25 million for violating a 2001 U.S. law prohibiting payments to terrorist groups, which included both the guerilla and paramilitary groups to which Chiquita had made payments.  

The revelation has sparked lawsuits against Chiquita by victims of violence perpetrated by both paramilitary and guerilla groups, a congressional investigation, threats by Colombian officials to extradite Chiquita executives, and a 60 Minutes story in May 2008 in which a paramilitary leader stated that all banana companies, including Dole and Del Monte, have been forced to make such payments.  Dole and Del Monte have denied the accusation; in 2010, a similar lawsuit was also filed against Dole.  In June 2011, a U.S. court ruled that one key lawsuit could move forward, as reported on the PBS radio station Worldview in July 2011.  Colombian banana unions are not plaintiffs in the lawsuits.