|
Dole Campaign: An Important Step Forward in Costa Rica |
|
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.
Whilst acknowledging the Costa Rican agreement as an important step forward, the regional coordinating body COLSIBA calls on supporters in consumer countries to keep up the pressure on Dole since there has been little or no progress on respect for trade union rights in other countries where Dole is present, notably in Ecuador, Guatemala and Peru.
The agreement is particularly significant in that it establishes a six-person supervisory committee to assess compliance and includes important commitments to non-interference by anti-union promoters from the Solidarismo movement. Procedures are also established for raising trade union rights issues in Dole supplier plantations.
The role of Norwegian importing company Bama Gruppen - which has an exclusive agreement to supply Dole bananas - is of particular significance. This follows a TV documentary just after our campaign launch last May in which Dole and Bama were held responsible for poor working conditions in Dole's Latin America plantations. Bama played an important role in brokering the agreement and has signed a witness. |
