“We work harder and harder, try to produce more and better while preserving the environment. But while our plants and fruits grow, while the profits of the supermarkets grow, the prices we receive never seem to grow. They cannot sustain a decent standard of living.”

Anton Bowman
small producer, Windward Islands

“My demand as a worker is to be paid accordingly. We work because we have the need to earn a living, so if we work we should get paid appropriately. I just ask that we get paid as we should, enough so we can survive, so we can provide for our children, our families, to support others.”

Alan Rafael Garcia Socola
Peruvian plantation worker

“They spray with the little plane and this affects the workers’ health because there’s no protection. There’s no protection for the women who work packing bananas in the packing plant. They don’t give them gloves, masks, boots… They don’t get given anything like that.”

Francisca Criollo
a nurse on the Rio Culebra banana plantation, Ecuador

“The current instability of the labour market wears the face of a woman; it is our responsibility to fight to improve our working conditions to ensure that we are employed with decency and dignity from this day and onwards.”

Fátima Del Rosario Herrera Olea
trade union activist, SITAG‐Peru