El Universo, Quito, Ecuador.  A report was presented yesterday to the Ombudsman on the effects of the use of toxic agrochemicals in banana plantations. The study was undertaken by epidemiologist Jaime Breilh, an expert in social medicine at the Simon Bolivar Andean University, Arturo Campana, psychiatrist specialised in mental health from the Centre for Health Studies, and Adolfo Maldonado, tropical medicine specialist. The team analysed 190 cases of pilots, mechanics and chemical warehouse workers in the provinces of Guayas, Los Rios and El Oro.

The methods used by the experts were questionnaires, stressful event testing, incomplete sentence tests and urine tests for chemical residues

The study started in April, following a denunciation to the Ombudsman by Accion Ecologica (environmental NGO). This organisation expressed their concern about the alleged widespread and recurrent intoxicationsof workers in the banana sector.

Some of the study's conclusions are that:
–    some 500,000 people could show a “high level of health effects from agrochemicals” when workers and the nearby population are taken into account;
–    protective measures for those who work in the industry are insufficient;
–    the majority of the population show moderately serious to extremely serious levels of intoxication;
–    the secondary effects detected are stress and depression;
–    there are high mortality rates.
    The recommendation is to set up a Truth Commission to study the impact of the use and abuse of pesticides, review aerial spraying policies, investigate the effects of a product called Mancozeb, and create an integrated healthcare system for workers.

Breilh explained that in the First World average annual pesticide use is 2.7 kg of pesticide per hectare, whilst the average in Ecuador's banana plantations is between 44 and 65 kg per hectare per year.
Jorge Acosta, a representative of the pilots, requested a more detailed study.

Marco Llerena, deputy Ombudsman, said that a resolution would be issued at the earliest possible opportunity.

Click here to read a short summary of effects of agrochemicals on Ecuadorian banana plantations. 

May 2007 - Los Alamos five years on – let workers organise freely
On May 16th 2002, our colleague Jan Nimmo witnessed the violence unleashed by armed men against unarmed banana plantation workers at the Los Alamos plantation in Ecuador's Guayas province. The workers, fed up with years of mistreatment and exploitation at the hands of the Noboa Corporation, had formed a trade union and gone on strike when their demands were ignored.  

Read more  

April 2007 - Police Violence Against Workers at the Maria Teresa Plantation in Ecuador
On 17th April, at around 11 am, under the pretext of an inspection by the Agrarian Development Institute (INDA), a group of some 40 police from the special forces (GOE), entered the Maria Teresa plantation and proceeded, without justification, to launch tear-gas bombs against the workers inside. This police violence was not deterred by the presence of schoolchildren in the housing area. 

Read more and take action  

June 2006 - Ecuador: Annual Survey On Violations Of Trade Union Rights
A report recently released by ICFTU highlights the continuing trade union violations occuring in Ecuador. The report states that workers at banana plantations received some of the worst treatment in Ecuador in 2005. 44 workers at the San José plantation were sacked simply for setting up a trade union. A protest strike was called by the workforce but the police used tear gas to quell that legitimate action. Police used the gas on several occasions, including against plantation workers at La Primavera who were seeking to obtain management's acceptance of a collective agreement.

Read the full press release here.

May 2006 - Ecuador: New Subcontracting Law Approved
After two weeks of blockage in the Ecuadorian Congress, the first ever law directly regulating “labour mediation” - the infamous labour sub-contracting companies that employ the vast majority of the quarter of a million or so plantation workers – was passed on 30th May. The law should be in force by August. The big change for companies who use these sub-contracting firms is that a maximum of 50% of any company's workforce can be sub-contracted, whereas at present there are no limits. FENACLE, the organisation representing rural workers had argued, along with other trade unions, for a maximum of 20%. They had also argued that sub-contracting shuld only be allowed by certain restricted activites, not for the main business of producing bananas, for example. However, members of Parliament approved the use of sub-contracted labour for any activity. The law also provides for the formal registration of labour mediation companies, which many hope will put an end to the creation of “phantom” sub-contractors with the same legal representatives as the company which then hires them. Despite the disappointments, this new legislation can be seen as a major victory for FENACLE, whose members and leadership have argued for government regulation in this area since 2003. “This law will protect workers' rights as well as honest and properly registered contractors”, said Mecías Tatamuez, leader of the CEDOCUT confederation and workers' representative on the National Labour Council.

Photo: Most banana workers are hired by labour sub-contracting companies who deny them their rights. On My 23rd several hundred traveled to Quito to lobby the Congress on the text of a new law that threatened to exclude agricultural workers from any protection.

December 2005 - Latest News About Bonita/Noboa
After weeks of workers strikes and continual pressure from trade union FENACLE, the Ecuadorian banana company, Noboa (trading as Bonita), has reinstated 56 workers who had been fired from the La Primavera plantation. This summer British trade unionists lobbied the company in response to an urgent action request circulated by Banana Link, on behalf of FENACLE, condemning attacks on striking workers at the plantation.
Bonita has agreed to reinstate the workers for at least a year, to enrol them in Social Security and to pay for previous years’ service. This apparent breakthrough has followed years of abuse of labour rights by Bonita, notably the violent attacks carried out on striking workers on Los Alamos plantation in 2002. FENACLE, however, remains uncertain if this increase in respect for labour rights is a one-off for Bonita or the start of a new labour conscious policy for Bonita plantations, especially since the company has so far failed to intervene to prevent the de-registration of the Primavera union. In addition Noboa has indicated it was only willing to hold its suppliers to adherence to Ecuadorian labour legislation, not to international standards. Ecuadorian labour law effectively prevents workers from organizing.

November 2005 - Update On Situation At El Zapote
The strike continues with the full support of the workers. The list of grievances formally presented on 25th September by the Workers' Committee at Zapote came up at the labour tribunal in Babahoyo in October. The Ministry's Inspector, for an unknown reason, decided the case should be transferred to the tribunal in Quevedo.
The Inspector there convened a first conciliation hearing, but only invited the company representatives, in flagrant violation of the legal procedures set out in the Labour Code. The workers appealed to the higher labour court, where the regional Labour Director, again in violation of the established appeal procedures, decided to declare the case as invalid and sent it back to the Quevedo tribunal to be officially archived.
On 22nd November, FENACLE wrote to the new Labour Minister, José Serrano, to complain about the illegal behaviour of the Ministry's employees, seeking an urgent audience to explain the case in detail and seek proper justice.
Meanwhile, workers and their families are in their eighth week of strike action, with the company not prepared to budge an inch. They have received a small donation of money to buy food from Swiss trade unions, but this is now running out.

October 2005 Workers On Dole And Noboa Supplier Plantations Need Urgent Support
Download the urgent solidarity request from plantation workers trying to organise, and to peacefully defend their legal rights.

September 2005 - US Government Threaten Exclusion From Trade Agreement
The U.S. warned Ecuador in mid-September that it risks being excluded from a free trade agreement the Bush Administration is negotiating with Colombia, Ecuador and Peru unless it undertakes labor rights reforms according to an article published in Inside U.S. Trade.
Visit US/LEAP to read more.

September 2005 U.S.: Ecuador’s Labor Abuses Violate Trade Act
The United States should suspend Ecuador’s trade benefits due to the country’s failure to comply with the labor rights requirements of the Andean Trade Preferences Act, Human Rights Watch said today in a petition filed with the U.S. Trade Representative. Human Rights Watch called for suspension of Ecuador’s trade benefits because of the country’s poor record on workers’ right to freedom of association and harmful child labor.

June 2005 - Bonita Reversal?
In June 2005, Bonita effectively intervened in the labour struggle at the Primavera plantation, an independent supplier, marking a significant departure in the company's previous approach to worker rights concerns. Under the agreement, all 56 workers who had been fired were reinstated, enrolled in Social Security, and provided compensation for years of service. FENACLE is waiting to see whether Bonita's positive intervention in the Primavera case represents a trend or not. For more information please visit www.usleap.org

June 2005 - New ICFTU Report Submitted To The WTO: "Serious Violations Of Core Labour Standards In Ecuador"
A new report by the ICFTU on core labour standards in Ecuador, produced to coincide with the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) review of Ecuador’s trade policy this week, shows serious shortcomings in the application and enforcement of core labour standards. In particular, the report notes a lack of trade union rights of workers, discrimination and child labour.

The report highlights that the right to form trade unions is not only subject to legal restrictions (a minimum of 30 workers is required to form a trade union) but that in practice employers also try to prevent the formation of trade unions and collective bargaining by subcontracting, so that they need not employ more than 30 workers. The end result of this is reduced protection for workers.
The report further notes particularly serious violations of fundamental workers’ rights on banana plantations. Workers’ rights are not respected, trade unions are almost non-existent, child labour is widespread and health and safety severely lacking. Download full document

June 2005 - Urgent Action Request From Striking Workers - The Victims Of Violent Attacks 
Our Ecuadorian partners, FENACLE, are calling for international solidarity to help end the constant police repression against banana workers and their union leaders and activists. FENACLE are demanding that the Ecuadorian government guarantee not only the labour rights of workers but also their freedom and integrity, as established in the Constitution of the Republic and International Labour Organisation conventions. Workers have been attacked on two separate plantations whilst striking to have their most basic rights respected. Click here to download the full Urgent Action Request

June 2004 Ask The Labour Minister To Urgently Respond To FOUR Attacks On The Freedom To Organise In Ecuador
On 27 February, 33 workers who had formed a union at the Tara del Sur plantation presented their formal registration documents to the local Labour Inspectorate, in accordance with Articles 447 and 448 of the Ecuadorian Labour Code. Three days later the union leadership also presented their list of bargaining demands. On 20th March, when the management found out about these actions, they prevented the workers from coming into work on the plantation and verbally sacked them. To date the employer has not presented either termination letters or redundancy notices to legitimise these unfair dismissals. Download urgent action request.

December 2003 Ecuadorian Banana Port Workers’ Leader Given Prison Sentence
An urgent request to support his legal appeal. Washington Orellana, leader of the new port workers’ association at Puerto Bolívar in Southern Ecuador, has been sentenced by a corrupt local judge to four months in prison. His crime? To have been quoted in a local press article denouncing the unfair treatment by contracting companies in the port which failed to pay benefits due to workers!

Download the urgent appeal and read about the solidarity support from the GMB London region and BWTUC.

July 2003 Hunger Strike Now In Second Week
Los Alamos Update from banana workers' union FENACLE
Now in the their fifth week since being sacked, 26 Los Alamos workers are maintaining their hunger strike in the face of the intransigence of the Noboa company. The unions met with Noboa's lawyer on Monday 21st July, but the company refused to reinstate the sacked workers and insists that they take a derisory redundancy payment.
As a result, the unions are seeking support from around the world. They thank those who have already sent letters to the Government and ask for people to keep up the pressure on the Government to ensure the Noboa company respects the labour laws of its own country.
Take action: Please urgently send letters to the President of Ecuador Lucio Gutierrez calling on him to resolve the Los Alamos case once and for all, to oblige the owners to respect Ecuador's law and international conventions, and to make reforms to the Labour Code via the banana workers' union FENACLE at fenacle@easynet.net.ec, copied to info@bananalink.org.uk

Spring 2003 Presentation Of New Year Greetings To New President
The Ecaudorian organisation Fenacle welcomed Gutierrez, the new Ecuadorian President, to his new post with more than 3,000 New Year's greeting cards sent by campaigners from over 25 countries. The campaign was coordinated by Fenacle and Banana Link, in association with the International Union of Foodworkers (IUF) and a number of European NGOs and trade unions. The cards reminded the President of election campaign promises to enforce existing labour laws and to implement reforms to make trade union organising easier.

December 2002: New Sackings At Los Alamos
On the morning of Monday 30th December, FENACLE report that when the Los Alamos workers went into work as normal, 75 of them, all members or leaders of one of the three unions, were told they were no longer required and that their redundancy pay was waiting in the offices of the local labour authorities. When the workers asked the Head of Personnel, Sr Ra?l Martinez, why they were being sacked, he replied that the company did not have enough work for them.

November 2002 Workers Subsequently Reinstated
After the legal system ruled against them, Noboa workers ended their struggle at the Alamos plantations on November 28, 2002 and returned to work under terms of an agreement that won them health benefits and medical care for injuries resulting from the May 2002 attacks, but little else. Despite significant local and international pressure on Alvaro Noboa, owner of the plantations, management refused to negotiate a collective bargaining agreement to improve wages and working conditions.While the Alamos struggle was largely unsuccessful in terms of the workers' primary demands, it was very successful in generating international attention on worker rights in the Ecuadorian banana industry and how Ecuador's place in leading a race to the bottom for banana workers throughout Latin America. 

November 2002 Owner Of Noboa Loses Presidential Campaign
Alvaro Noboa, owner of Ecuador's biggest banana producing and exporting company, entered the race to become President of Ecuador in 2002. Noboa, one of the richest men in Ecuador, failed however in his second bid to become President. In the first round at the end of October he came second to Lucio Gutierrez, former Army Colonel who played a leading role in the coup which ended the Mahuad Presidency in January 2000. In the second round on 25th November, Noboa lost to Gutierrez by 45.3% to 54.7%. Gutierrez has promised to cut the number of members of parliament and change the rules for high-level appointments in politics and the judiciary to make Ecuador more truly democratic. He also promised cheap housing and health care for the poor. Noboa has said that he may try for the Presidency again. Gutierrez took power on 15th January 2003.

May 2002 ILO Ruling On Los Alamos Violence
Shortly after the mid-May violence at Los Alamos plantation, the International Union of Food & Agricultural Workers (IUF) lodged a complaint to the Committee on Freedom of Association of the International Labour Organisation in Geneva on behalf of FENACLE. The ILO recommendation to the Government of Ecuador makes it clear that the ILO expects rigorous action in bringing the perpetrators of criminal acts of violence to justice, but is rather weak on the issue of the freedom to organise trade unions. However, IUF and FENACLE will be sending further information to the ILO to demonstrate why they believe that basic labour rights to which Ecuador has signed up are being flouted in the case of Los Alamos. Download the ILO report.

May 2002 Violent Attack At The Los Alamos Plantation
Workers on the Los Alamos plantation have faced repression for the last 18 months against their attempts to organise for better conditions.The first new unions in twenty years were formed in Ecuador in April 2002 on a plantation owned by the fourth biggest banana company in the world, Noboa. (Visit the Noboa page on the Companies section of this website for more information about the company.) However, when the workers went on a peaceful strike to protest against low wages, poor living conditions and non-payment of benefits, the workers were attacked by armed men on May 16th. About a dozen workers were seriously injured: one man, Mauro Romero, had to have his leg amputated as a result of the injuries. Film maker Jan Nimmo was able to document conditions inside the plantation and take workers' testimonies, and take video footage of the second attack on May 16th on Los Alamos.