A two-day stoppage by hundreds of workers at the world’s leading berry producer, Hortifrut SAC near Trujillo in Northern Peru, brought the company’s operations to a standstill last week.
The workers were reportedly protesting alleged harassment and psychological abuse during the blueberry harvest, including alleged mistreatment of pregnant mothers, discrimination against union members, excessive workloads, and other forms of abuse within the company.
In addition, the workers are demanding that Hortifrut issue a statement and clarify the death of one of their employees, who reportedly drowned in a pond on the company’s property.
After six hours of talks between the independent trade union at the site on 14th October, an agreement was signed resolving some of the specific complaints over the excessive behaviour of supervisors and permanent stress in the packhouse. The agreement included the commitment by the company to set up a permanent social dialogue process with the trade union to resolve broader issues in the company.
The talks between the company and trade union representatives leading to the end of the stoppage included a representative of workers who had not joined the union.
Banana Link International Coordinator said, “it remains to be seen whether this successful mediation by the Sindicato de Trabajadores de Hortifrut SAC leads to a permanent and fruitful social dialogue at the company that employs 17,000 workers, but it certainly highlights the urgent need across the huge Peruvian horticulture sector to put in place proper social dialogue mechanisms before infringements of rights and bad treatment boil over into spontaneous action by angry workers.”
As Pedro Campos, General Secretary of the trade union that mediated the conflict put it in an interview with local radio station Radio Ke Buena Viru last night: “We came into yesterday’s dialogue with a whole list of issues needing resolution and improvements in order to secure the conditions and health of working people here, because the company had not been taking notice of complaints. But now the company has sat down with us and started talking about finding solutions.“
Sources – Fruitnet, macronorte.pe, Radio Ke Buena Viru
