Ecuador is the world’s biggest exporter of bananas, accounting for about one third of global shipments in 2017, according to FAO. Bananas make up 10% of Ecuador’s exports in value terms, and representing over 6% of the world’s total banana production.
It has 5,000 growers, from small farmers to medium-sized and large-scale growers, and with some 200 exporting companies, including the big multinationals.
Ecuador is the only country in the world to impose a mandatory minimum official price to be paid to farmers.
Population
15.9 million
Gross Domestic Product
100.1 billion US$
Agriculture
9.6% of GDP
Total Land Area
24.8 million hectares
Cultivated Land
7.5 million hectares
Banana Production Area
297,700 hectares
Total Banana Production
6.28 million metric tonnes (2017)
ITUC Global Rights Index
Rating 5 (no guarantee of rights)
SINUTRABE Banana Link Partner
SINUTRABE (the National Union of Ecuadorian Banana Workers) was formed in September 2017, to organise men and women across the industry in a country where union membership remains very low. The organisation was finally accorded its legal registration in 2019 as Federación Sindical Unica de Trabajadoras y Trabajadores Bananeros del Ecuador.
The new union federation represents around two thousand workers, only some of whom currently enjoy collective bargaining agreements with their employers. The union is involved in the current struggle in the country against the attempts of the newly elected business-friendly government, to reverse nearly ten years of positive labour legislation and minimum wage increases introduced under former President Rafael Correa.
Our Work in Ecuador
SINUTRABE replaces the more or less inactive National Federation of Agro-industrial Workers and Small Farmers (FENACLE) as our Ecuadorian partner. Financial support from the GMB International Solidarity Fund and the charitable foundation of UIA Insurance had contributed to financing the work of SINUTRABE’s Women’s Officer, contributing to achieving:
an increase in women’s membership in unions at the local level
increase in education activities and producing publications on subjects relevant to women, to help raise awareness and overcome the cultural barriers to women entering salaried employment in rural communities
successful negotiation of specific gender clauses in two CBAs
empowering women in leadership roles through increasing participation of women in the SINUTRABE Executive Committee, to support the work of the Women’s Secretary locally
creation women’s committees in each local organisation, to collaborate with the Women’s Secretariat at the national level of SINUTRABE
Training workshops for men and women banana workers
SINUTRABE, with support from Colsiba and Banana Link, and funding from GiZ, have organised ten training workshops in the three main banana exporting provinces in 2020 in which a total of over 250 men and women workers attended the workshops in Babahoyo (Los Rios province), Naranjal (Guayas province) and Pasaje (El Oro).
The workshops provided training on:
ILO Freedom of Association and the Right to Collective Bargaining (C87 and C98)
formal and informal communication, organisational communications strategy and optimising the use of social networks
Health & Safety in the face of CoVid and Protecting Women
Humanitarian Law
World Banana Forum, CoVid-19 protection across the banana world and in Ecuador, and TR4 disease and biosecurity measures to prevent its spread
women’s leadership and the empowerment of women in trade union organisations
The importance and benefits of Collective Bargaining in agroindustry and what is Social Dialogue ?
Occupational Health and Safety and the Environment
Covid-19 and protecting the health and livelihoods of workers
Banana Link has supported trade unions across Latin America in seeking the implementation of measures to protect the health and incomes of workers and to strengthen covid-19 preventive measures in the workplace.
This has included the coordination of a Covid safety video, targeting plantation workers through social media, and adapted to each country. The video below is the version of the video released in Ecuador:
Manual for Occupational Health & Safety in The Banana Sector
One of the achievements of the initiative to-date has been the development and consensus reached to produce a Manual on Occupational Health and Safety in the banana industry, which was developed as a result of collaborative tripartite efforts. When launched in 2018, the Government also issued a decree making its use mandatory for the sector.
The official launch of the National Manual on Occupational Health and Safety for the Banana Industry by the Ecuadorian Ministry of Labour and Ministry of Agriculture took place on 21 May 2018 in Machala, Ecuador (pictured right). The Ministerial Agreement (No. MDT-2018-0108), signed on 16 May 2018, establishes the compulsory status of the Manual and the legislations included in it. The event was followed by training sessions for public and private sector actors.
Women’s Trade Union Workshop Through Banana Link Support
Thanks to support from Banana Link, the new banana workers’ trade union in Ecuador, SINUTRABE, was able recently to hold its first workshop for women worker representatives.
Women represent only 6 to 7% of the workforce because they are viewed as ‘high cost, high risk’ employees. Women workers face discrimination, harassment, and multiple health and safety risks, and are often unaware of their rights and how to defend them. This is exasperated by trade union discrimination; only 2 to 3 % of Ecuadorian agro-industrial workers are organised.
The workshop, attended by representatives of the Association of Banana Workers in Pasaje Canton (El Oro Province) and from the Association of Workers in Guayas, Los Álamos and Pechichal, discussed labour issues facing women on the plantations, along with the new ministerial agreements on working practices in Ecuador’s banana industry.
Videos of SINUTRABE delivering Covid-19 food and aid packages to communities in Ecuador to support workers and their families, communities, and people with disabilities.
Ecuador Resources
Manual on Occupational Health and Safety – Ecuador (Spanish only)
Equal Exchange bananas are unconventional. It’s not just that they are organic and fair trade. The Equal Exchange banana supply chain is a genuine departure from the conventional system – from the small farmer cooperatives directly exporting bananas to the alternative, independent retailers making them available to conscious eaters. Together, step-by-step, we are building a real alternative to conventional bananas.
Find out how fair trade ensures healthy working environments and fair working conditions for producers and workers in banana plantations through the example of Equifruit’s organic and Fairtrade bananas from the Small Producers Association El Guabo, Ecuador.
“I don’t like unions. I will fight them.”
This short film tells the story of what happened to banana workers on the Los Alamos plantation in Ecuador when workers decided to organise and strike to gain basic labour rights.
When Scottish artist, Jan Nimmo, travels to Ecuador, the world’s largest exporter of bananas, to gather workers’ testimonies, she observes the formation of the first trade unions in the banana sector for 30 years. The Los Alamos banana workers decide to go on strike for the most basic of rights. But the company which owns the plantation, Bonita Brands, is owned by Alvaro Noboa, Ecuador’s richest man and serial presidential candidate. Alvaro Noboa doesn’t like unions. Bonita is the world’s fourth largest banana company yet the workers earn a pittance, are exposed to a cocktail of toxic agro-chemicals and their living conditions are appalling. Bonita is a powerful eyewitness account of what happens to workers who dare to stand up against a powerful oligarch…..
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