Didier Leitón Valverde, general secretary of Costa Rican banana and pineapple trade union SITRAP, has been awarded honorary membership of UNISON, Britains largest trade union. The award was presented by National Executive Committee member Margaret McKee during the biannual UNISON conference in Brighton in June. The prestigious award recognises individuals who have demonstrated a longstanding commitment to defending the rights of the working class in the Global South.
Didier began his working life on the plantations of large fruit multinationals in Costa Rica as a teenager. Coming from a large family, living in the banana zone where few other employers exist, his father and most of his siblings worked in bananas too. Didier experienced first-hand the poor treatment of workers and the devastating impact of chemical exposure on workers – many of whom believe they were made infertile as a result. These experiences motivated him to defend workers as a trade unionist and he has been general secretary of SITRAP, representing banana workers in the Caribbean coastal region, since 2012.
UNISON, Britains largest union, has supported SITRAP – and now ANEP who organises banana workers in the Northen zone – for almost a decade with solidarity funding to boost the capacity of the union to defend banana and pineapple plantation workers in Costa Rica. In addition to chemical exposure, systemic issues faced by Costa Rican fruit workers include excessively long working hours, low wages and persecution for joining a trade union. Women are particularly affected by the problems workers face– on average working 8 hours extra per week than their male colleagues for lower pay, and suffering employment discrimination based on the perceived cost and inconvenience of maternity leave. The longer working hours, plus care responsibilities at home, make it harder for women to find the time to join a union. In addition, pregnant women and their unborn children are among the most vulnerable to harm from agrochemicals.
Photo: Didier with Margaret McKee, who was part of a UNISON delegation that visited Costa Rica in December 2025
In Europe, there are hopeful signs that retailers are beginning to take these issues, and their role in addressing them, more seriously. Over the last few years, many European retailers have made laudable commitments to ensure workers in their banana supply chains are paid a living wage and have recognised the need to work together to achieve systemic change. However, recent research by Oxfam Germany in Costa Rica shows that, from a sample of 83 workers employed in the supply chains of Dutch and German retailers, none reported having experienced a wage increase, bonuses or any other in-kind benefits that would move their income towards a living wage. Work in partnership with local, independent trade unions like SITRAP is essential to achieve sustainable wage increases and other improvements for workers.
The increasing retailer focus on the labour and environmental impacts felt at the producing end of their supply chains is in no small part due to the emergence of new mandatory Human Rights Due Diligence legislation in Europe. We have already seen modest successes for banana workers when Oxfam Germany filed a complaint under the new German Supply Chain Act, and we know that binding legislation is crucial for driving systemic change in international trade. Banana Link is part of the coalition of organisations calling for a Business, Human Rights and Environment Act to hold the businesses but also the public sector to account for conditions in the beginning of their supply chains.
Retailers increasingly also recognise that investment in their supply chains is crucial to ensure stable long term supply bases. Bananas are the leading product in volume and value for many European retailers, so ensuring a stable and predictable supply is top of the agenda. This means that the costs involved with banana production that have long been treated as externalities must now be properly recognised and reflected in the true price of a banana. This includes the cost of protecting workers and the environment from exposure to harmful chemicals, the cost of fair wages and decent working conditions and the cost of adaptation: with climate change threatening existing banana zones, much work is to be done to ensure a stable supply of bananas over the next few decades.
Holly Woodward-Davey, Project Coordinator at Banana Link commented:
“Many thousands of workers in rural Costa Rica depend on the banana trade for their livelihoods. As Didier was keen to point out, we are not here to say that anyone should stop buying Costa Rican bananas. What we call for is for retailers to pay a fair price – one that covers the true cost of production – and for a recognition that engagement with the independent trade unions who represent banana workers, link SITRAP and ANEP, is fundamental if efforts to improve the lives of workers are to succeed and be sustainable in the long-term. We are grateful for the solidarity that UNISON has shown to SITRAP over the years and we celebrate the recognition Didier has received with honorary membership to UNISON.”
Photo: Didier addressing the UNISON Local Government Conference
