1st June 2007

Two hundred banana plantation workers from the northwestern region of Nicaragua, sick from pesticide exposure, are again marching to Managua asking the government to support their fight to get compensation from foreign companies. The demonstrators are mostly elderly workers with precarious health due to their contact with the pesticide Nemagon. They began their march on Sunday 20th May in Chichigalpa, 120km from Managua, and advanced toward the capital, arriving on the 30th.

They say they will not let anything stop their attempt to get to Managua and ask the government's help so that giants including Dole Fruit Company, the Standard Fruit Company (a brand of Dole), Dow Chemical, Shell Oil Company and Occidental Chemical are brought to justice for operations in Nicaragua from 1970 to the mid-1980s. The former workers want to ask the government to require that the transnational companies pay damages for their ill health.

The last protest was in 2004, when thousands of sick workers camped in black plastic tents for months in what used to be the center of Managua before the 1972 earthquake. Carlos González lamented that many of those who initiated the fight against the banana and chemical company "Goliaths" have been succumbing to disease in the past two years. In the past ten years, over 1,700 people have died (400 of them during 2005-2007), victims of diseases caused by the pesticide, according to González. The Nicaraguan government has promised to help a group of 23,800 former banana plantation workers receive compensation based on health problems, according to Prosecutor Hernán Estrada.

Meanwhile, U.S. lawyer Juan Jose Dominguez continued to pursue a suit in a Los Angeles court where, as reported by Christian Miller in the Los Angeles Times last Sunday, "a U.S. jury will have the chance to weigh the accusation that Dole Food company knowingly used a pesticide manufactured by Dow Chemical Co. that sterilized workers in Latin America." Miller reported that, earlier this month, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Victoria Chaney broadened the reach of the case (which represents 13 Nicaraguan workers) by linking it with four other pending lawsuits in Los Angeles involving sterility claims on behalf of more than 3,000 former banana workers from Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala and Panama. Also named in the cases are Del Monte Fresh Produce Inc., Chiquita Brands Inc. and Shell Oil Co.

Workers in countries around the world have been suing the corporations for the past 30 years but in nearly every case they ran into the legal doctrine of "forum non conveniens," which says lawsuits should be heard in the countries where the damage occurred. Judges ruled that the cases had to be brought in the nations where the bananas were grown (and where the legal system was likely unfavorable to the workers) not where the companies had their headquarters.

"Then," as Miller said in his article, "Nicaragua changed the rules." The law passed by the Nicaragua in 2000 favored the workers and, in the first case before the Nicaraguan courts, a judge awarded US$490 million to 450 workers. Dole, Dow and Shell refused to pay saying the law was unfair. Miller continued, "That created an opportunity for new lawsuits in the United States which Dole and Dow no longer opposed."

Only 13 sterile men (male sterility is the one problem accepted by the companies as caused by Nemagon) are named in the Los Angeles case but the case is expected to open the door for thousands of other former workers. As reported in a previous Hotline, Amvac Chemical Corp. (also sued by Dominguez) recently settled out of court for $300,000 and Dole is in Nicaragua negotiating an agreement directly with banana workers similar to one finalized recently in Honduras in which the company will pay up to $5,000 to banana workers who agree to drop claims against the company. Watch this space for further updates!