On Monday 11th March, banana workers who had formed a trade union at seven plantations producing for Ecuadorian banana giant Noboa were prevented from entering the plantation by private security backed up by state police and told they were fired.

Background

Monday 25th February saw the first major strike action by Ecuadorian banana workers in over 20 years. If the registration of the new union they have formed is approved by the Labour Minister, this will be the first independent banana workers' union since the 1970s.

The struggle is being watched carefully by banana unions throughout Latin America, whose wages and benefits are threatened by the dominance of non-union, low-wage banana exports, from Ecuador, the world's biggest banana exporting country.

On 25th February, more than 1400 workers at seven plantations producing for the Noboa Corporation (Alamos Division) went on strike in support of their basic labour rights. These are all rights established under Ecuadorian law. The owner of the Noboa Corporation is Alvaro Noboa Pontn, candidate to the Presidency and the richest man in Latin America. Noboa is the fourth biggest banana company in the world (after Chiquita, Dole and Del Monte).

Specifically, the workers are demanding that they are paid overtime, inscribed in the Social Security system, provided with healthcare facilities, fair wages and job security. They are fed up with what they describe as the inhuman treatment to which they have been subjected and so are demanding the recognition of a new union they have formed, called General Union of Plantation Workers of Haciendas* Yanayacu 1 and 2, Rey Rancho 1 and 2, La Nueva, Zapotal and La Teresa. The union has submitted an application for the legal registration of the union to the Minister of Labour. If he does not object by 26th March, the union will be fully legal.

Management initially responded to the strike action by firing eight union leaders. After legal advice, the rest of the workers went back to work since their wildcat strike was technically illegal. Union supporters subsequently began signing up hundreds of members and filed an application for legal registration of the union. In the first week, 500 workers signed up for the union.

FENACLE, Banana Link's Ecuadorian trade union partner, is requesting letters in support of these workers' rights, denouncing the mass sackings on March 11th and encouraging the company and the government to protect the basic rights of the workers: