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UK Superstore Banana Price War Attacked by Aid Charities |
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26 May 2008, The Guardian
A supermarket banana price war has broken out and been widely condemned by overseas aid charities. Asda triggered the battle when it cut the cost of a kilo of the fruit from 77p to 72p last Wednesday. Tesco and Morrisons followed suit the next day and Sainsbury's, which sells only Fairtrade bananas, matched the 5p reduction 24 hours later.
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New Union in Dole Pineapple Producer in Ecuador |
12th May 2008, Buena Fé, Los Rios, Ecuador
Today a new trade union was notified by the Labour Ministry to the management of the Siembra Nueva pineapple plantation in Los Rios province. 71 of the 300 or so workers at this plantation took the decision to form a trade union and Special Committee (empowered to negotiate with the company) after two months of intensive education and training sessions by organisers and legal staff from FENACLE. The company produces fresh pineapples for Dole-Ubesa.
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1 May 2008
This week marks six years since Ecuadorian banana workers producing Bonita (Noboa) bananas went on strike in support of humane working conditions. The violent response of the company and the ensuing efforts to form a trade union revealed that one of the biggest obstacles facing most of Ecuador's banana workers was that they were employed by sub-contracting companies, who were often no more than phantom companies designed to stop them claiming their rights.
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Breaking the 'Conspiracy of Silence' with the Launch of a Global Initiative on Commodities |
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30 April 2008
In May 2007, the Common Fund for Commodities, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, United Nations Development Programme and the African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group of countries joined forces to launch the Global Initiative on Commodities (GIC)—an inter-institutional initiative aimed at leveraging the power of commodity production and trade as a positive force for sustainable development across the developing world. In the context of stagnant WTO agricultural talks in the framework of the Doha Round, the GIC aims to create a common voice to break the “conspiracy of silence” which has engulfed commodity-based development strategies over the past two decades.
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Pratts Bananas and GMB warmly welcome agreement at Luton site |
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21 April 2008, Lawson Dodd
Pratts Bananas, one of the UK’s leading fruit importers, and GMB, one of the country’s biggest trade unions, today warmly welcomed the results of an ACAS membership check of GMB union members which will now lead to a voluntary bargaining agreement being signed by both parties. The GMB’s involvement will further support Pratts at their site in Luton, which employs nearly 500 people.
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Bitter Fruits: Oxfam Claims Low Prices Terrible for Laborers |
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15 April, Patrick McGroarty (Berlin)
A new study by Oxfam Germany claims that German discount supermarkets contribute to the poor treatment of fruit-farm workers in developing nations. Savings for German consumers, Oxfam argues, are making life miserable for Latin American laborers -- who are badly paid and exposed to dangerous chemicals.
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Feeding lions and educating auditors - Del Monte workers' victory |
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31 March 2008
This is the story of how a group of workers in a banana plantation owned by the Costa Rican subsidiary of Fresh Del Monte overcame the tactics of intimidation and repression practised by most fruit companies in that country.
Supermarket buyers are assured by auditors that the company complies
with international labour standards by allowing its employees the
freedom to join any organisation of their choosing. However, on the
ground in Costa Rica, behind the smoke-screen of permanent workers'
committees, 'direct agreements' and voluntary social certification is
the harsh reality of a company that, like many others, funds a
permanent anti-union campaign.
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WINFA Makes Historic Breakthrough |
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20 March 2008
After over five decades in which Windward Island farmers have had no control over the marketing of their bananas, the farmers' organisation WINFA - with several thousand members in Saint Vincent, Saint Lucia, Dominica and Grenada - has signed a contract last week to sell bananas to a single marketing company WIBDECO.
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Workers demand fairer share of Suriname banana profits |
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19 March 2008, Caribbean Net News
Former Dutch colony Suriname is not as well known for its banana industry as many countries in the Caribbean basin and news from there is rare. However, following restructuring of the state company SBBS, including partial privatisation and a significant input of EU aid, workers have become increasingly unhappy about pressure to raise productivity without corresponding remuneration. A fortnight ago, workers on the other big plantation threatened action if their new union was not recognised by SBBS management.
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National Coalition of Communities Affected by Pineapple Expansion Launched in Costa Rica |
15 March 2008
On 8th March, representatives of social, environmental and community organisations from the three main pineapple growing areas of Costa Rica – the world's number one exporter – met in La Perla de Guácimo and formed the first national coalition to try and halt the serious damage being done by industrial pineapple expansion in these areas.
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Another Guatemalan banana union leader shot dead |
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12 March 2008
On March 2nd, Guatemalan banana union leader, Miguel Angel Ramirez of SITRABANSUR, was shot dead. SITRABANSUR, which is affiliated to Banana Links Guatemala partner union UNSITRAGUA, was founded by Miguel Ramirez and his fellow workers at the ‘Olga Maria’ plantation in the Pacific South of Guatemala in July 2007. Since then SITRABANSUR members have been harassed and threatened by private security hired by the company -Frutera Internacional Sociedad Anónima, supplier to Chiquita Brands- and 24 union members have been sacked. UNSITRAGUA has been working with SITRABANSUR to support these sacked workers and strengthen union organisation on the Olga Maria plantation.
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Central American Agriculture at Stake |
February 2008
Click here to download the Preliminary Study on the Position of Agricultural Workers and Small Farmers’ Organisations in Central America on the proposed Association Agreement between the European Union and Central America. This report has been commissioned by Banana Link and ICCO and written by Greivin Hernandez Gonzalez, an independent consultant in Costa Rica, with support from Aseprola.
The opinions and analysis presented in the second half of this report have been gathered through an extensive participatory consultation process - including workshops in Honduras and El Salavador - with leaders from agroindustrial workers’ unions and small farmers’ organisations in the different countries of Central America.
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Guatemala: End Impunity Now! |
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ITUC, 1 February 2008
Yesterday saw the conclusion of the international conference on the
role of trade unions in the fight against impunity, held in Guatemala
City by the ITUC, its regional organisations ORIT and CLAT, the
International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) and the ITUC’s
Guatemalan affiliates, the CGTG and CUSG. The event was inaugurated by
the President of Guatemala, Alvaro Colom. At the close of the event,
the Conference Declaration was handed over to the Minister of Labour
and Social Affairs, Edgar A. Rodriguez, for submission to the
Guatemalan authorities.
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New Sales Agreements for Windward Fairtrade Bananas |
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19 December 2007, WIBDECO/WINFA press release
New Sale and Purchase Agreements for all Fairtrade bananas from the Windward Islands, for 2008, will be signed between WIBDECO and the Windward Islands Farmers’ Association (WINFA). The latter is the certified producer organization for Fairtrade in the Windward Islands, representing banana producers in the region.
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Europe to Sanction US Companies |
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November 28, Brussels(Prensa Latina)
The European Union said on Tuesday that it will sanction the US companies Dole, Chiquita Brands and Del Monte, the Ecuadorean firm Noboa and Ireland's Fyffes for creating a banana cartel in Europe. European Commissioner for Competition Neelie Kroes sent a letter to the affected companies early this week informing them about the measure, EU sources said. It is not the first time that Brussels puts those big multinational companies under observation.
In 2005, Kroes said without mentioning any brands, the EU investigated the largest banana and pineapple multinational companies in Great Britain, Germany, Belgium and Ireland. These firms were exporting large amounts of banana to Europe at artificially high prices.
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Los Angeles Jury Punishes Dole Foods Company, Inc. |
November 16, 2007
On November 15, 2007 a Los Angeles jury rendered a punitive damages verdict in the amount of $2,500,000.00 on a finding of malice to punish corporate giant Dole Foods Company, Inc.(“Dole”) in sterilizing 5 Nicaraguan banana plantation workers with the pesticide Dibromochloropropane (“DBCP”) in the 1970s. [Tellez, et. al. v Dole Foods Company, Inc, et. al Los Angeles Superior Court Case #: BC 312852].
Click here to read the full press release.
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Chiquita Sued in NY Over Killings in Colombia |
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14 November 2007, Reuters
The largest U.S. lawsuit to date against top banana producer Chiquita Brands International was filed on Wednesday, claiming the company funded and armed a Colombian paramilitary organization accused of killing banana growers.
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Presentation Of £74,000 Gift From Glastonbury Festival To Banana Link |
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11 October 2007
Presentation of £74,000 gift from Glastonbury festival to Banana Link to help secure fair deal for Latin American banana workers Glastonbury Organisers Michael Eavis and Melvin Benn together with Bert Schouwenburg from Battersea and Wandsworth trades union council (BWTUC) will present cheque to Banana Link.
Michael Eavis from Glastonbury Festival, Melvin Benn from Festival Republic and Bert Schouwenburg from BWTUC will present a cheque for £74,000 to Jacqui Mackay, National co-ordinator and Alistair Smith, international co-ordinator of Banana Link at a photocall presentation at 12.00 noon on Tuesday 16th October 2007 at the Tangley Room, Paddington Hilton Hotel, 146 Praed Street London W2 1EE. Following the photo call the participants will be available to answer questions.
This gift is one of the donations to good causes from Glastonbury festival 2007. The money to Banana Link will be used to fund the 'Union to Union' programme which meets the costs of employing and deploying 14 trade union organisers in the banana industry in the 6 Latin America countries of Ecuador, Peru, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Honduras. The aim of the programme is to assist the banana workers to unionise so that they can represent themselves in talks with their employers and the supermarkets in the EU that buy their produce.
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Companies Act Becomes Law, But Brown Needs To Go Further To Achieve Targets |
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The Corporate Responsibility (CORE) Coalition, 1 October 2007
Leading campaign groups today welcomed the Companies Act (that becomes law on October 1), but called on Gordon Brown to make sure that the act is the first step to further reforms on the government’s thinking on business, poverty and the environment.
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Guatemalan Banana Union Leader Murdered |
25 September 2007Masked gunmen murdered Guatemalan union leader Marco Tulio Ramírez Portela early in the morning of September 23 as he was leaving his home for work. Marco Tulio was secretary of sports and culture of the banana workers union SITRABI, which organizes Del Monte workers. His brother, Noé Antonio Ramírez Portela, is the union general secretary. Read more on the IUF website. |
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Jamaica: $64 mln. in Agricultural Losses in St. James Due to Hurricane Dean |
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29 August 2007, jis.gov.jm
Some 3,800 farmers in St. James have suffered losses as a result of Hurricane Dean, with approximately 640 hectares (1,600 acres) of fruit and vegetable crops valued at more than $64 million destroyed.
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Hurricane Recovery Efforts, a Priority |
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WINFA, August 28, 2007 WINFA continues to give priority to its efforts to ensure that farmers affected by the ravages of Hurricane Dean are assisted to rebuild their lives, regain productive livelihoods and continue with their production efforts both to bring more foreign exchange to the islands and to guarantee our food security. Its Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Renwick Rose, has just returned from visits to the islands most affected, St. Lucia and Dominica.
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Post “Dean” Rehabilitation Assistance |
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WIBDECO, 27 August, 2007 On August 17, 2007, hurricane Dean struck the Windward Islands causing significant damage to banana fields. Dominica and St. Lucia were hardest hit, with St. Vincent sustaining minor damage. A more detailed assessment indicated that the overall damage to banana fields in St. Lucia was not as extensive as originally feared, and WIBDECO is pleased that it will continue its weekly shipment of bananas from the Windward Islands to its customers in the United Kingdom. |
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Revealed: How Multinational Companies Avoid the Taxman |
Felicity Lawrence and Ian Griffiths, November 6, 2007, The Guardian
Global banana companies supplying the UK are using tax havens to avoid paying tax on their profits here and in developing countries, the Guardian has found.
The investigation reveals that large corporations are creating elaborate structures to move profits through subsidiaries to offshore centres such as the Cayman Islands, Bermuda and the British Virgin Islands, to avoid handing money over to tax collectors in the countries where their goods are produced, and in those where they are consumed. Governments at both ends of the chain are increasingly being deprived of the ability to raise tax for development or services.
Click here to read more.
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Jury Holds Dole Liable for Punitive Damages |
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Los Angeles Times, November 8, 2007
Nicaraguan farmworkers had already been granted $3.2 million in compensatory damages from the food company. The latest ruling opens the door for an additional award.
Dole Foods of Westlake Village should be liable for civil punishment for concealing health dangers posed to workers by a pesticide used on its Nicaraguan banana plantations 30 years ago, jurors in a Los Angeles courtroom decided Wednesday.
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Dean Causes Unemployment in English-Speaking Caribbean |
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According to Windward Island and Jamaican government figures, more than 19,000 people's livelihoods have been affected by Hurricane Dean. The director of the company Jamaica Producers group, Jeffrey Hall, declared that the first effect would be on employment. In Saint Lucia, around 2000 farmers and workers were affected by the destruction of about 280 hectares of land.
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Up to 100% of Guadeloupe Banana Crop Lost |
22 August 07, Banane de Guadeloupe et Martinique
In a press communication, the Union of Banana Grower Associations from Guadeloupe and Martinique announced that the hurricane Dean has destroyed up to 100% of the banana production, with damages varying between regions. In Guadeloupe, two major production zones have been affected. In the zones Montagne de Basse Terre, Robert and Trois Rivières 100% of the crop was reported lost. Between 70 and 80% of the crop in Capesterre was lost, too.
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WINFA Hurricane Recovery Initiatives |
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22 August 07, WINFA press release
WINFA has embarked on a number of initiatives to seek assistance for the farmers of the Windward Islands, the Fair Trade farmers of Dominica and St.Lucia in particular, in light of their pressing needs following the devastation caused by hurricane Dean. Preliminary assessments so far indicate almost total destruction in Dominica, 75-80% damage in St.Lucia and a much smaller figure of about 10% in St.Vincent. WINFA hereby expresses its solidarity with all farmers affected, banana and non-banana alike and is working in conjunction with other stakeholders including the Governments of the Windward Islands to ensure a speedy revival of the banana industry and agriculture in general.
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Banana Farm Worker Testifies in Pesticide Trial |
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15 August 2007, the Associated Press
A worker from Honduras has testified in a Los Angeles courtroom that he and his wife tried for a decade to have children but failed to conceive after he went to work on a banana plantation where the pesticide DBCP was used. Espinoza is one of a dozen banana farm workers who are suing Dole Fresh Fruit Co. and Standard Fruit Co., now part of Dole, charging that exposure to DBCP -- the abbreviation for dibromochloropropane -- in the 1970s made them sterile. The lawsuit also said that Dow Chemical Co. "actively suppressed information about DBCP's reproductive toxicity." |
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Fairtrade Banana Sales Reach Over 1% of World Trade |
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30 July 2007
Figures published this week by FLO International, the global umbrella Fairtrade standards body, reveal that sales of Fairtrade certified bananas in 18 countries in 2006 reached over 1% of total world trade in the fruit. The figure of 135,763 tonnes for the year is 31% up on 2005 sales.
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EU Competition Authorities Accuse Big Five of Price Cartel |
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26 July 2007
In 2005, Chiquita informed the EU competition authorities that some of its staff may have been guilty of sharing price information and market fixing with other big banana and pineapple companies. This triggered a surprise raid on offices in Ireland, UK, Germany and Belgium by Brussels competition police in the earlier hours of June 4th 2005.
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Dole Pesticide Trial Begins |
This case marks the first time that an American company has gone before a jury to face accusations that a pesticide poisoned workers in plantations abroad. The chemical in question is Nemagon (chemical name: Dibromochloropropane), banned in the US since the late 1970's.
Nearly three decades of legal struggle has come to a head in a Los Angeles courtroom as a trial began in a case pitting field hands against two of Americas largest corporations. Since the 1980s, attorneys have filed civil lawsuits on behalf of more that 30,000 workers on plantations in Africa, Latin America and the Philippines. Although some of those lawsuits have settled, none has been presented to jurors. Twelve workers have alleged sterilisaton in Thursday's case, though thousands of additional workers in Nicaragua are preparing to sue. The case is also one of the few in which an American company has been sued in the US for alleged damages occurring overseas.
Read more about the impact of DBCP use on banana plantations and the the struggle of workers and their unions to obtain justice.
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Costa Rican Union Signs First New Collective Agreement in Over 20 Years |
19 July 2007  Following a long process of negotiation between the trade union SITRAP and the Ecoturismo Bananero plantation, the two parties today signed a historic two-year collective bargaining agreement governing labour relations. It is historic because it is the first new collective agreement in the banana industry since the mid 1980s, in a country which has gained an unenviable international reputation for its anti-union culture. |
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Ecuador: Waking up to Agrochemical Damage |
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13 July 07
There has been a flurry of articles in the Ecuadorian press in the last week focusing on the damage to the health of local inhabitants and plantation workers in the banana communities from the use and abuse of agrochemicals, especially from indiscriminate aerial spraying. Although such issues have been widely reported in Central America, the levels of awareness of – and action to remedy - the problem in the world's number one banana exporting country have been very low.
In this review of three articles from the El Comercio newspaper, the only encouraging news is that environmental organisations at local, national and regional level and local authorities have started becoming involved in channeling formal complaints from affected communities in Guayas and El Oro provinces.
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EU Criticises US Intervention on Banana Dispute |
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Reefer Trends, 4 July 2007
The US decision to start fresh legal action against the EU’s reformed banana import regime has damaged hopes for a negotiated settlement to the long-running banana war.
“It is an unfortunate move by the US,” said the Commission in a statement. “It disregards efforts that the EU continues to make to reach a negotiated solution which takes account of all the banana-exporting countries,” he said. “We have got into line with the WTO ruling on bananas. We think the current regime is compatible with international rules.” The European Commission said it was confident its changed tariff policy, introduced last year after it lost a WTO case brought by Washington and several Latin American banana producers, would stand up to scrutiny.
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2 July 2007
After several years of silence on the fifteen year old dispute over the EU's banana import arrangements, the world's second biggest consuming country came out on the attack on 29th June. Ecuador and Colombia had already lodged separate disputes at the World Trade Organisation's Dispute Settlement Body earlier this year. Now the USA too is contesting the duty-free quota allocated by the EU to African and Caribbean exporting countries in the last reform of the import regime in January 2006.
As has been the case since the first challenges in the early 1990s, it is the tiny Windward Islands who stand to lose from this latest challenge. If they have to pay the same tariff as the big Latin American exporters to sell in the EU market, it will make their bananas far less attractive to supermarket buyers who are on the constant look-out for cheaper bananas.
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International Development Committee Recommends Government Support For Fairtrade |
15 June 2007
The Fairtrade Foundation welcomes the International Development Committee, House of Commons, report released today which notes that Government support for Fairtrade lags behind public support, and recommends that the Department for International Development (DfID) adopt a much more proactive and strategic approach, allocating longer-term resources to Fairtrade, and taking a lead on facilitating increased Governmental procurement of Fairtrade products across all Departments.
Click here to read the full press release.
Click here to read the TUC press response, 'Consumers aren't the only answer to poverty - unions have a key role to play.'
Click here to read the full 'Fair TRade and Development' report, to which Banana Link submitted written evidence.
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World Day Against Child Labour - 12th June |
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12 June 2007
June 12 has been designated the World Day Against Child Labour (WDACL) since 2003. This year, in recognition of the fact that little or no progress has been made in eliminating child labour in agriculture, the sector accounting for the largest share of child workers, agriculture is the focus of the World Day. Last year's International Labour Conference concluded that, in the words of the ILO, "Unless a concerted effort is applied to reducing child labour in agriculture, it will be impossible to achieve the ILO goal of elimination of all worst forms of child labour by 2016."
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Caribbean Farmers and Activists Issue Declaration on EPAs |
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3 June 2007 Farmers and social activists from the Windward Islands, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago rallied together on St. Vincent last weekend over concerns about the on-going trade negotiations between the Caribbean and the European Union for an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA). Click here to read the Mt Bendick declaration, issued on 3rd June 07. |
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Farmers and Activists Rally on Implications of EPAs for the Caribbean |
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29 May 07 Farmers and social activists from the Windward Islands, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago are expected to converge on St. Vincent this weekend for a big march and rally focused on the trade negotiations between the Caribbean and the European Union for an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA). |
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Who Pays? How British Supermarkets are Keeping Women Workers in Poverty |
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23 April 2007
Action Aid has published a report on supermarket buying power which draws on examples of the banana, garment and cashew nut supply chains. It concludes that the huge power and purchasing practices of big multiple retailers in the UK needs to be regulated.
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Life in Honduras' Banana Republic |
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18 April 07
Read about life in Honduras' banana republic, where 12 hour shifts are the norm. Article and interviews by Damian McCarney. |
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Banana Wars Shift from Fruit Multinationals to Big Retail |
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April 2007
UK subsidiary of Walmart has done it again! For the fourth time in as many years, the world's biggest company has launched a retail price war over the humble banana, in a bid to get its competitors' customers through it doors. In the space of a week in mid-April they cut a full 20% off retail prices, indefinitely according to some sources.
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Fairtrade Foundation Denounces Latest Price Cuts in Supermarket Banana Wars |
17 April 2007The Fairtrade Foundation today expressed great regret at the announcement by Asda Wal-Mart that it has slashed the price of loose bananas by approximately 17p per kilogram (kg) to 68p per kg. This move has triggered another round in the ongoing price war on bananas between supermarkets and has already been followed by Tesco. This latest cut represents around a 36% fall from 2002 when bananas where sold at around £1.10 per kg. Read more...
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ITUC Identify Core Labour Standard Violations in Costa Rica |
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April 2007 Although Costa Rica has ratified all eight ILO core labour conventions, numerous violations continue to take place, particularly with regard to trade union rights, and fundamental changes are required in order to comply fully with the commitments Costa Rica has made at both the ILO and the WTO. |
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Dole Campaign: An Important Step Forward in Costa Rica |
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April 2007
After ten months of international campaigning by trade unions and NGOs, Dole Food's Costa Rican subsidiary has signed, on 27th March 2007, a framework agreement on trade union rights and environmental issues with Costa Rican plantation workers' unions represented by COSIBA-CR. The unions concerned see this is a major step forward, although it remains to be seen in practice whether the company will respect the agreement on the ground.
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Asda/Walmart Price Cut Outrages Workers in Latin America |
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16 April 2007
Just when we thought that the world's biggest retailer had finally understood that cutting banana prices in their stores is bad news for plantation workers, Asda/Walmart has done it again. They have cut a full 15p per kilo off retail prices, indefinitely according to some sources.
Past experience shows that this means that Asda/Walmart suppliers will further reduce wages and conditions for plantation workers in Latin America and West Africa. Already workers have to put up with ever harsher conditions, failing to earn a living wage or have even their most basic rights respected.
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Dispute Panel to Rule on EU'S Banana Import Regime |
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Bridges Weekly 20 March 2007
WTO Members on 20 March agreed to establish a panel to examine whether the EU's banana import policies violate multilateral trade rules, in response to a complaint by Ecuador. Brussels blocked Ecuador's initial request for a panel earlier this month, but was prevented by WTO practice from doing so a second time when Quito repeated its request at a meeting of the Dispute Settlement Body.
The spat, which has lasted for over a decade, pits several Latin American banana producers and the US, against the EU's trade preferences for bananas from its former colonies in the African, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) group of countries.
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UK Visit of Mireya Rodriguez Rodriguez, Costa Rican Trade Union Activist |
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March 2007 In March 2007 Mireya Rodriguez Rodriguez, a representative of the SITRAP Executive Committee and Women’s Committee, and Coordinator of COLSIBA – CR (Costa Rican Banana Workers Union Coordinating Body) Women’s Committee, visited the UK during International Women’s Week to raise awareness of the struggles faced by female workers and trade unionists in Costa Rica. Click here to read an interview with Mireya about the work of the Women's Committee of Costa Rican banana worker's union, SITRAP, to empower women to participate actively in their union and promote their rights both in the workplace, and wider society.
Read more about Mireya's visit. |
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Ecuador, Furious at EU Tariffs, Reignites Banana Wars |
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Dow Jones Newswires, 27 February 2007 After months of threats and backroom talks, Ecuador, the world's biggest banana exporter, Monday informed the European Union that it has asked lawyers at the World Trade Organization to dust off its files and reopen, with new threats of fines and sanctions, more than 15 years of previous legal battles. And while Ecuador is wading into this battle alone, other disgruntled nations may join.
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Ecuador Reignites Banana Wars |
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Dow Jones Newswires, 27 February 2007
After months of threats and backroom talks, Ecuador, the world's biggest banana exporter, Monday informed the European Union that it has asked lawyers at the World Trade Organization to dust off its files and reopen, with new threats of fines and sanctions, more than 15 years of previous legal battles. And while Ecuador is wading into this battle alone, other disgruntled nations may join.
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Saving St Lucia: UK Supermarket Sweeps Up 100m Bananas |
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The Guardian, 27 February 2007 In one of the more dramatic corporate interventions in any country's economy since the East India Company's forays to the east in the 18th century, Sainsbury's will announce today that all the bananas it sells from now on will be fairly traded, and that nearly 100m of these will come from St Lucia. Read full article. |
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26 February 2007 The theme is Change Today, Choose Fairtrade. With over 2500 Fairtrade certified products now available, it’s easier than ever to change what you eat drink and wear to Fairtrade, and make a positive change today for the lives of millions and farmers in developing countries. Take part in this Fairtrade Fortnight 26 Feb - 11 March 2007. Visit the Fairtrade Foundation to read more. |
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Protests in Ecuador as Banana Prices Take a Sharp Fall |
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Banana Link, 10 September 2006 Ecuadorian banana producers take to the streets in protest as banana prices in Ecuador fall to US$0.70, well below the recommended minimum box price of US$3.25. Read the full article here |
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Judge in Texas Orders Dole to Suspend Out-of-Court Talks with Banana Workers in Nicaragua |
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Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign, 26 June 2006 Dole food company has announced it will obey an order from a judge in Texas to suspend talks with former banana workers in Nicaragua who are seeking an out-of-court settlement for damages caused by the pesticide Nemagon (which was used in the country's banana fields in the 1960s, 70s and 80s) while the Texas suit proceeds. Victorino Espinales, a leader of one of the principal groups of banana workers, said that the workers he represents are not involved in the court case in Texas. He said that the lawyers are afraid of a possible out-of-court settlement because all of their cases are bogged down and have come to nothing. Evidently, an out-of-court settlement would, if it were to happen, require all suits against Dole to be dropped. |
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Trade Union Rights in the Americas: Mulitnationals in the Hotseat |
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ICFTU, 7 June 2006 There is no doubt about it. Apart from Colombia, the worst violators of union rights in the Americas are multinational companies, and particularly those based in the region's export processing zones (EPZ's). The ICFTU's 2006 Annual Survey on Violations of Trade Union Rights also documents other obstacles to the respect of those rights, such as the rise of the informal economy, the lack of commitment of governments and industrial tribunals to ensure respect of labour legislation, and the huge increase in insecure employment contracts. Countries featured in the report include Ecuador with workers at banana plantations receiving some of the worst treatment. Read the full press release here. |
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Company Law Key to Tackling Poverty, Groups Tell Blair |
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CORE, 6 June 2006 The Prime Minister will be urged to follow up on his commitment to tackling global poverty today (Tuesday 6 June 2006) as the Company Law Reform Bill enters the House of Commons. Faith groups, campaigners and lawyers say the Bill represents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to ensure that business operates for the benefit of people and the environment. Read the full press release here. |
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Costa Rica: Antiunion Repression |
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ICFTU, 1 June 2006 Serious threats were made against Costa Rican trade union representatives from the Confederacion de Trabajordores Rerun Novarun (CTRN) when their office was attacked on 24 May. Read the full press release here. |
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Strike Averted with new Collective Agreement for Colombian Banana Workers |
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IUF, 30 May 2006 The Colombian rural workers union SINTRAINAGRO has succesfully negotiated a new three-year collective agreement for the country's 16,000 banana workers, thus averting a sector-wide strike for which the union had prepared. Agreement was reached on May 25 following intense, continous negotiations with emploters involving the direct participation of the federal Minister for Social Protection in the final phase. Read the full press release here. |
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Banana Sales Dip Despite Low Prices |
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Freshinfo, 19 May 2006 Despite prices being at record lows, banana sales plummeted in the four weeks to April 23. The latest war being waged by the bid four retailers saw prices of loose bananas slashed by 24.7 per cent- to 64p a kilo - in the last week of March. Read the full press release here. |
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OFT Refer Grocery Market to Competition Commission (UK) |
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9 May 2006 The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has announced today that it will refer the supply of groceries by retailers in the UK to the Competition Commission (CC) for a market investigation. In the UK around 75% of all groceries are sold by just four big retailers and bananas are the single most profitable item passing through the check-outs! Visit Tescopoly for further information and reaction.
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Aid Agencies Demand Supermarkets Inquiry on Poor Producers |
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Action Aid, April 6, 2006 Anti-poverty agencies today made a last-ditch plea for the proposed Competition Commission investigation into Britain's supermarket giants to probe claims that they abuse their market power against suppliers in poor countries Read the full press release here. |
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Yes WalMart We'd Like Bananas...But Not at Any Cost |
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17 March 2006
Today Asda/WalMart led the highly lucrative British banana market into a potentially savage price war. The supermarket giant has cut its banana prices by a full quarter of an already low price in a desperate bid to wean customers away from its rivals.
But this is a war which spells major collateral damage for people and the environment in banana exporting communities in West Africa and Latin America. Serious damage. "It could mean that banana workers will be forced to stop sending their children to school. This price cut at your end of the chain will fall on the shoulders of the plantation workers, as it always does," said Didier Leiton, former Del Monte worker in Costa Rica, sacked for trying to improve conditions for himself and his fellow workers. "This news spells lower wages and less rights", added Leiton.
Read the full press release here. This news is also featured on the CAFOD website.
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Ecuadorian Banana Union Conflicts Unresolved |
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USLEAP, March 2006 Banana workers in Ecuador report setbacks in the very modest progress that had been gained in 2005, denouncing both Dole and Noboa (the Ecuadorian owner of the Bonita brand) for failing to intervene effectively with suppliers who have fired their trade union leaders en masse. Read the full press release here. |
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