Thirty trade union leaders working in Ghana’s three banana exporting companies came together from 9th to 12th March in Apaaso Township in Asuogyaman District to discuss joint strategies to achieve Living Wages for all the country’s five thousand employees in the industry.
A three-day workshop co-organised by Industrial & Commercial Workers’ Union (ICU), Ghana Agricultural Workers’ Union (GAWU), International Union of Foodworkers (IUF) Africa and Banana Link explored issues concerning the world and African banana markets, the distribution of value along the chain from worker to consumer, the initial findings of independent field and academic research on the cost of living for banana workers, collective bargaining techniques and the mutualisation of trade union efforts to negotiate improvements.
Leaders from ICU and GAWU at Golden Exotics Limited (a subsidiary of Compagnie Fruitière), Volta River Estates and BF Ghana (formerly Musahamat) proposed to unite their work at local, regional and national levels. The union leaders propose a national bargaining framework to achieve Living Wages, gender equity and safe work.
Participants also stressed the importance of a credible benchmark for real costs of living, validated by both the unions and the companies, to aid bargaining. Producing companies underline the significance of the ILO’s new mandate to support locally owned initiatives that involve the three key stakeholders in each country: trade unions, employers’ organisations and government.
Banana worker representatives also advanced a proposal to work together with the companies to convince buyers that sustained fair prices giving room for negotiation between local parties at plantation level are the responsibility of the retailers and other value chain partners in the European markets where Ghana’s bananas are sold.
Workers’ leaders were particularly encouraged to hear (by video conference) directly from trade union leaders in Cameroon and Côte d’Ivoire on similar efforts towards negotiated Living Wages across the African industry.
The trade union leadership training sessions will be followed by a planned feedback programme through worker meetings and assemblies designed to reach the great majority of the men and women employed in the industry.
‘Death wages’ versus Living Wages
Samuel Ananga, Deputy General Secretary of the Industrial & Commercial Workers’ Union ICU confirmed the importance of closely coordinated efforts by both trade unions in the banana sector. Whilst Andrews Tagoe, General Secretary of the Ghana Agricultural Workers’ Union GAWU stated that
“The Ghanaian government should now promote the living wage model, as ICU, GAWU and the Trade Union Congress have recommended. This is necessary because the current national minimum wage is so low that workers refer to it as a ‘death wage’!”
It should be noted that banana workers are paid well above the minimum wage.
The process under way to achieve living wages through collective bargaining in the banana sectors of Ghana, Cameroon and Côte d’Ivoire enjoys the active support of a significant group of British and European retailer buyers, key trader intermediaries and certification body Fairtrade, as well as being actively promoted by the regional producers’ association Afruibana and its member companies. All efforts are designed to align with mandatory Human Rights Due Diligence legislation adopted in Europe, which was also addressed during the training.
