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Delegation Visits to Ecuador and Costa Rica October 2006
In October 2006, Banana Link co-ordinated multi-union delegation visits to both Ecuador and Costa Rica:
Ecuador: Youth Delegation Visit (2006)  A Youth delegation, involving members of Usdaw, Amicus, UNISON, NTUC and STUC was hosted by Ecuadorian trade union FENACLE (National Federation of Agro-Industrial Workers, Peasants and Indigenous People). The delegation met with a number of young member groups from FENACLE’s wider youth network of over 1,000 workers.
Photo: Union to Union delegates in Nicaragua (Banana Link)
FENACLE's Youth Program
FENACLE`s Youth Programme is working to improve conditions and develop the skills and opportunities of young people, including young banana workers and ex-banana workers who have lost their jobs due to stricter enforcement of child labour laws and young representatives of banana producing communities. As part of the Youth Programme, 25 young workers from banana producing regions throughout Ecuador were joined by the British delegation to participate in a two day workshop on “Youth, Politics and their Vision of Unionism”. The workshop initiated the second phase of FENACLE’s Youth Programme, which has continued due to support from NTUC Young Members and Amicus through the Banana Link facilitated Union to Union project. During the visit, in various workshops and meetings, the British delegates met with young workers across the banana producing region. The FENACLE young members had many questions for the British delegates about the realities of work and unionisation for British youth. The strength and size of the British unions evoked awe-filled reactions from the Ecuadorian youth who witness daily repression of trade unions in Ecuador, where only 2% of banana workers are unionised. The Ecuadorian young members were also inspired to hear about the activities of the British youth within the Union to Union project, such as the NTUC Young Members who, every Boxing Day plunge into the icy waters of the North Sea to raise money for the FENACLE Youth Programme.
Plantation Visits The delegation also visited fair-trade banana producer ‘Agricultural Group Prieto’ to witness the difference that fair-trade makes to banana workers and their communities. In contrast, the delegation visited plantations owned by multinational fruit company Dole and met with the senior management of Dole Ecuador. This was an interesting experience for the delegates, who were left with concerns over the level of trade union repression faced by Dole workers. In the community of Buena Vista the delegation visited Fair-trade community development projects such as a medical centre and dispensary, and a community shop. The visible evidence of such benefits of the fair-trade system were impressive, consolidating views that fair-trade workers get a much better deal than those working on conventional banana plantations in Ecuador. The delegation were, however, concerned that no trade unions exist on fair-trade plantations in Ecuador, instead they employ the system of ‘workers associations’. The delegates doubted if these associations are a sufficient mechanism for workers to make appeals for respect of labour rights to their employer but were unable to speak to the workers directly to resolve these doubts.
Delegation Visit to Costa Rica (2006)
As part of this delegation visit, two GMB delegates were accompanied by Banana Link staff to visit banana and pineapple plantations in Costa Rica.
As well as meeting several hundred banana and pineapple workers during the visit to Britain's biggest tropical fruit supplier country, the delegation started out in the major Caribbean port of Limón, responsible for over 85% of all exports and imports into Costa Rica. The newly elected leadership of SINTRAJAP (a dockers' union affiliated to the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF)) took the delegates into the public and private docks, which had been under police control for 3 weeks, following a work-to-rule action by the union, in protest at the proposed privatisation – or “concession”, as the Arias government prefers to call it – of the public docks.
The good news for the dockers came at the end of October when, following a strong national campaign and international support from both ITF and IUF, the union reached an agreement with the government over restructuring plans and their demand that the terms of their collective bargaining agreement be respected. The government met all the unions' demands and the deal includes a pledge by the company not to harass or persecute workers or trade union leaders. Strike action was called off after the deal was struck. Although the dockers earn two or three times as much as the average plantation worker, SINTRAJAP has pledged its solidarity with the struggle to enforce decent labour standards in the workplaces that keep the port busy.
A New Kind of Competition? The delegates were hosted by the independent trade unions SITRAP and SITAGAH who are helping overcome workers' fear and, where employers accept, initiating dialogue to press for improvements and the rule of law. The GMB and other British unions are actively supporting this process of engagement and dialogue as they know, from experiences at home, that this is the only route to resolving problems in the short- medium- and long-term. In recent weeks, there are some encouraging signs that our collective calls on supermarkets and fruit companies to “reverse the ”race to the bottom” and engage in a new kind of fair competition based on enforcement of the labour standards enshrined in national and international law and the promotion of 'decent work' (the ILO's and now the EU's official agenda) and living wages may be, for the first time, being heard and acted upon. Delegation Visits to Ecuador (2002) and Costa Rica (2004)
Banana Link has organized a series of delegation visits as part of the Union to Union campaign: to Ecuador (2002) and two to Costa Rica in March and October 2004. Visit the Young Member Section to read more about the latter visit. Costa Rica 2004  In 2004 two multi union delegations visited Costa Rica. Costa Rica supplies nearly one in four bananas consumed in Britain an Ireland and at the time of the visit were the subject of a vicious price war led by Asda/Walmart (see news for details of latest prices war) that had seen prices reduced from £1.08 to 74p per kilo. There are fears that to achieve these price levels, suppliers are being squeezed to a point where these cuts are being pushed back along the supply chain, thereby making it impossible for plantation workers to be paid a living wage. Plantation workers in Costa Rica currently earn as little as £4 per day, as well as being exposed to large quantities of toxic chemicals causing respiratory problems, cancers, abortions and, in some cases, death.
The delegation visited plantations where owners, faced with declining revenues, have slashed wages by up to 40% over the last 3 years. Over the same period some 10,000 direct jobs have been lost as plantations have closed down or raised productivity. National labour laws have been systematically ignored as companies have intensified their attacks on independent trade unions working to defend the workers’ rights. The visit was hosted by the plantation workers’ union, SITRAP, who wanted the delegation to witness at first hand the conditions endured by their members, especially, where possible, those who produce for the British and Irish markets. Delegates met with workers to view and document working conditions, assess levels of trade union repression and discrimination of members and?undertake a preliminary investigation of whether workers earn a ‘living wage’. The British unionists also met with industry players and the government to discuss the behaviour of transnational and national plantation owning and exporting companies ?and the impact of European retailer buying power. During their visit the delegates addressed an assembly to inaugurate the SITRAP Training Centre funded by the GMB London Region to offer a safe space for union members to meet, organise and train. More than 70 members travelled from across the region to participate in the solidarity event to share experiences and honour the memory of Brian Weller, GMB London activist, in whose memory the centre has been named. Continued Solidarity On their return delegates formed the Anglo Irish Trade Union Support Group to continue to lobby for the respect of core labour standards by both corporations perating in, and the goverment of, Costa Rica. The GMB London Region's solidarity relationship with Costa Rican union, SITRAP, grows from strength to strength and since 2005 the region has fund raised to support two organisers and their transport. This support has already produced a range of impressive practical results on the ground including isuccess in the battle to organise amongst works employed by the Acon group (supplying Dole). Over the first six months of the GMB funded organising project union membership has risen from two dozen members in one plantation, to more than100 (of the 800 total) in three plantations.
Read the summary report of the first six months of GMB funded organising project. Read the full report of the delegation visit. Ecuador 2002  In 2002, members of the GMB, TGWU, Usdaw and the Irish trade union, Mandate, visited Ecuador. Their hosts were Fenacle, a small farmers’, indigenous people’s and trade union organisation and partners in the Union to Union project. Fenacle are leading efforts to unionise and defend banana workers rights in Ecuador; they estimate that amongst a workforce of more than 350,000, less than 1% of banana workers belong to an independent union. The delegates witnessed the inauguration of three new trade unions – the first in twenty years in the banana sector.
Shortly after the delegates left Ecuador however workers belonging to these unions on the Los Alamos plantation went on strike for decent pay and conditions. The NoboaEcuador section of the site. corporation, owners of the plantation, sent in hundreds of armed men to attack the worker, leaving dozens injured. One man, Mauro Romero, had to have his leg amputated. For more information about the struggle to organise in Ecuador please visit the Ecuador section of the site.
Since their return, the delegates and their unions have campaigned alongside a network of Latin American, European and US trade unions and NGOs, for the recognition of workers rights in Ecuador. The organization of banana workers in Ecuador remains a critical struggle in determining the future working and living conditions of banana workers around the world. It is an important opportunity for international solidarity to halt the Race to the Bottom being pursued in the industry. Ecuador Resources Available:
Race to the Bottom: Banana Workers’ Rights in Ecuador
24 page A4 booklet describing the conditions that Ecuador’s 250,000 banana workers face. It describes how companies are relocating production and sourcing in a quest to supply the rich consumer markets with the ‘cheapest’ possible bananas. As the publication uncovers, ‘cheap’ comes at a high price for the workers.
Available from Banana Link (£3 plus p&p) Los Alamos “I don’t like unions. I will fight them”
Short film telling the story of what happened to banana workers on the Los Alamos plantation in Ecuador when workers decided to organise and strike to gain basic labour rights. This is a unique eyewitness account of the strike and the response of the plantation owner, Ecuador’s richest man. Running time 9 mins. Available in DVD or VHS format. English/Spanish.
Available from Banana Link (£5 plus p&p) Bonita: Ugly Bananas
A documentary version of the Los Alamos story. Suitable for all audiences interested in human and labour rights. Running time 23 mins. Available in DVD or VHS format in English/Spanish.
Available from Banana Link (£10 plus p&p) and www.greengold.org.uk
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