Please send as far and wide as possible. Thanks, Robert Sterling Editor, The Konformist http://www.konformist.com Labor Alerts (5,700 subscribers): a free service of Campaign for Labor Rights, a member of the Alliance for Global Justice To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Web site: <www.summersault.com/~agj/clr> Phone: (541) 344-5410 Fax: (541) 431-0523 Membership/newsletter: Send $35.00 to Campaign for Labor Rights, 1247 "E" Street SE, Washington, DC 20003. Sample newsletter available on request. BANANA UPDATE posted December 13, 1999 [Information provided by the U.S./Labor Education in the Americas Project: (773) 262-6502, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>.] This is a long alert. If you are pressed for time, please go directly to the action request. In this alert: Del Monte update Action request / campaign strategy Analysis 1. Global banana crisis 2. The Ecuador problem 3. Parallel with apparel industry Chiquita update Del Monte background information <><><><><> DEL MONTE UPDATE On December 2, Del Monte rejected a proposal by its Guatemalan union, SITRABI. Submitted two weeks earlier, the proposal sought to resolve a labor conflict prompted by the company's illegal firing of 900 workers at three Del Monte plantations in late September. The union's proposal had accepted Del Monte leasing the three plantations to contractors - with the condition that wages, benefits and SITRABI union representation be maintained. The company, hoping to wash its hands of any responsibility in the matter, refused, saying that the union would have to take up its concerns directly with the new producers. While Del Monte may try to distance itself publicly from the Morales plantations now that they are leased to contractors, Del Monte still owns the land and is the plantations' only customer. Del Monte has the primary responsibility for resolving the conflict. Although Del Monte published an ad in the local Guatemalan newspaper in October promising not to pull out, in more recent communication with the union the company is essentially threatening to leave Guatemala if a new contract for Del Monte's remaining plantations does not roll back previous gains by workers. By leasing its plantations to a contractor using non-union employees, Del Monte already has started a rollback of union gains. The non-union replacement workers have been receiving wages 20 percent lower than the union workers received: $4.29 a day, compared with $5.29 a day. The replacement workers also receive none of the benefits the union gained, such as health, education for employees' children and housing. These are the conditions future workers on the plantations can expect if the union falls. <><><><><> ACTION REQUEST / CAMPAIGN STRATEGY Note: The following suggested three actions are ranked in order of priority, for those who have time for only one or two of the actions. We also are including a fourth special action request for labor rights activists in Florida and California. FIRST PRIORITY FOR ACTION: Get Del Monte off the shelves for two weeks. Requested action: Many of you already have responded to our request to check whether local supermarkets carry Del Monte bananas. Thank you! We are now requesting that you follow up on that research and ask any stores that do carry Del Monte bananas to stop stocking them for two weeks as an act of solidarity with the workers in Guatemala. We encourage strengthening this request by mentioning your organizational affiliations and also mentioning the possibility of leafleting (if applicable, of course). But, even if you do not have organizational connections or if future leafleting actions are not a possibility, please do contact local stores by phone or in person and request that they not stock Del Monte bananas for two weeks. Let us know if you contact local stores and what the response is. You can make your report by email <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> or phone (541) 344-5410. Note: Whether or not stores agree to keep Del Monte bananas off the shelves for two weeks, there is an excellent chance that your concerns will be conveyed to Del Monte. Chain stores become very nervous when they think that they might become the focus of an organized consumer campaign. Once the national headquarters of various chains hear that consumers are raising concerns about Del Monte, management is likely to cpoints: In October, following the illegal firing of 900 Del Monte banana workers in Guatemala, banana union leaders were violently forced at gunpoint to renounce their union and to flee for their lives. Whether or not Del Monte representatives had anything to do with this serious human rights violation, the fact remains that the company has profited from this in its drive to bust the banana worker union in Guatemala. In order to pressure Del Monte to deal fairly with its workers, we are asking stores which carry Del Monte not to stock those bananas for two weeks and to let Del Monte headquarters know why they are taking this action. Stores can contact Del Monte via phone (305) 520-8400 or fax (305) 442-1059. This action has the support of the banana workers. SECOND PRIORITY FOR ACTION: Pressure the Guatemalan government. Requested action: Contact the Guatemalan Embassy in Washington and urge the Guatemalan government to take immediate action to prosecute those responsible for the violent intimidation of union leaders or risk losing U.S. trade benefits. Ambassador William Stixrud, Embassy of the Republic of Guatemala, 2200 R Street NW, Washington, DC 20008, phone (202) 745-4952, fax (202) 745-1908, email <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. Note: In response to campaigns, government offices sometimes deactivate listed phone or fax lines or email addresses. If one form of communication with the embassy does not prove functional, please try another. Talking points: Because of violent intimidation of banana union leaders following the illegal firing of 900 banana workers in Guatemala and because the Guatemalan government has taken no credible actions to bring to justice those responsible for such a serious human rights violation, the U.S. Trade Representative is considering putting Guatemalan trade benefits on probation. The Guatemalan unions and human rights advocates in the United States are in favor of this measure. The Guatemalan government has failed to take appropriate measures in response to violence against the SITRABI union and has done nothing to end impunity with respect to assaults on trade unionists. National Police investigators did not meet with SITRABI leaders to obtain their formal statements until November 4 - three weeks after the raid on the union hall - and then took two weeks to issue arrest warrants for just 9 of the 43 men identified by the union leaders. Then, at the end of November, a local judge dismissed charges against two of them and reduced charges against the remaining seven, granting them light bail. As of early December, no one was behind bars for the blatant and violent intimidation of union leaders. Moreover, a Guatemalan judge has ruled that a civil case against Del Monte for illegally firing 900 union workers must be brought to court as individual cases rather than (as should be the norm under Guatemalan law) in a collective group. A backlog of 900 separate cases obviously slows the entire judicial process to a crawl. At the same time, a trumped-up lawsuit has been filed against the five SITRABI leaders alleging corruption. These developments demonstrate a bias against the banana unionists. THIRD PRIORITY FOR ACTION: Contact Del Monte. Requested action: Contact Fresh Del Monte Produce and urge the company to negotiate a resolution with the union. Mr. Mohammad Abu-Ghazaleh, Chief Executive Officer, Fresh Del Monte Produce, 800 Douglas Entrance, North Tower, 12th Floor, Coral Gables, FL 33134, phone (305) 520-8400, fax (305) 442-1059. If Del Monte's phone or fax is not working when you contact the company, please try another of the avenues of communication provided here. Talking points: Banana union leaders in Guatemala were subjected to violent intimidation in October. Whether or not Del Monte representatives had any part in that incident, the company is responsible for labor practices on the plantations from which it sources. Destroying banana worker unions and then slashing workers' wages and benefits seems to be Del Monte's cost-cutting tactic for dealing with the global banana overproduction crisis. The banana unions and human rights advocates insist that Del Monte honor its collective bargaining agreements and respond to the crisis in a way that respects the basic rights of its workers. SPECIAL REQUEST: For activists living in Florida or California. Regional actions are being planned in the Miami, FL and Los Angeles / Santa Barbara, CA areas! Contacndspring.com>, <><><><><> ANALYSIS 1. GLOBAL BANANA CRISIS All the major banana companies are losing money and their stock prices are at extremely low levels, as are the prices of bananas themselves. Industry analysts say that there is a glut in the banana market because producers hadn't expected the collapse of the eastern European, Russian and Chinese markets and also because an anticipated opening of the European Union market (in response to rulings from the World Trade Organization) has not taken place. Chiquita, on whose behalf the Clinton administration filed the WTO suit, had particularly been counting on being able to expand its sales in the European market. Del Monte's downsizing in Guatemala is part of a wave of shutdowns, firings and cost-cutting measures, especially in the Central American banana industry, in response to the global industry crisis. In addition to firing 1,000 workers in Guatemala, Del Monte also has fired more than 1,000 workers in Costa Rica and is threatening to leave Guatemala altogether if its union there doesn't give up previous gains. In November, Dole announced that it would exit Nicaragua and Venezuela entirely and take measures that would result in laying off 9,000 workers, most of them production workers in the banana industry. The layoffs will come not only in Nicaragua and Venezuela, but also Costa Rica, where 4,000 to 5,000 workers could lose their jobs in mid-December when Dole cancels its contracts with independent suppliers. Chiquita has taken steps to convert some of its Honduran plantations from bananas to African palm, which requires far fewer workers, while continuing to move slowly on rehabilitating most of its plantations destroyed by Hurricane Mitch in October 1998. Chiquita also reportedly has threatened to close down one of its Panamanian subsidiaries if the union does not agree to a reduction in personnel, and rumors of massive layoffs abound. 2. THE ECUADOR PROBLEM In addition to loss of markets, the other root of the crisis is Ecuador, according to both the companies and the unions. It is the world's largest exporter of bananas and has been increasing its market share by selling bananas at a significantly lower price than exporters in Central America. It is able to do so in large part because of much lower wages. (Virtually all the banana worker unions in Ecuador were destroyed 20 years ago.) Ecuadoran banana workers are paid about $2 to $3 a day, often with no benefits, in contrast to unionized plantations in Guatemala and Costa Rica, where workers have been earning closer to $10 a day, plus being provided with housing, health care and education for their children. Banana companies like Chiquita say that they cannot continue to compete in the world market with relatively high wages paid to their Central American workers as long as Ecuador continues to flood the market with cheap bananas. And Central American governments are also pointing their fingers at Ecuador, with Costa Rica recently accusing Ecuador of "social dumping," reflecting the devastation that the banana crisis is having on the world's second leading exporter. But many Ecuadoran producers also are hurting in the world market. Export prices of Ecuadoran bananas have been dropping this year, not only undercutting the world market price but throwing much of the Ecuadoran banana industry into crisis as well. The Ecuadoran banana industry has a mix of large and medium plantations along with smaller family-farm type operations. The crisis is especially damaging to the smaller producers. The expansion of production in Ecuador represents a shift by the major banana companies to sites of cheaper production - rather than the emergence of new banana companies producing cheaply in Ecuador in order to undercut the existing banana giants. However, so far the various companies are not necessarily equally represented in Ecuador. 3. PARALLEL WITH APPAREL INDUSTRY There is a rough parallel between developments in the Central American banana industry and the U.S. clothing industry. In both cases, production is being shifted from comparatively well-paid, unionized jobs to low-wage, non-unionized countries, except that in the case of bananas, Central American workers are losing rather than gaining jobs through the shift. In another difference, unlike the apparel industry, only five companies control 90% of the world's banana trade. The long-run implications for tst private sector unions in the region and in more than 50 years of struggle have achieved enormous advances against the major multinational banana companies. However, those gains are rapidly being eroded. At least in the short term, that process is likely to continue unless some national disaster strikes the Ecuadoran banana industry. The way in which Del Monte has handled the Sitrabi case in Guatemala strongly suggests that the banana companies will use the global crisis of overproduction as a cover to severely weaken, if not destroy, their unions. UPDATE: CHIQUITA REFUSES WORKER RIGHTS AGREEMENT Chiquita has notified the Coordination of Latin American Banana Worker Unions (COLSIBA) that it is not willing to negotiate a proposed path-breaking regional worker rights agreement intended to resolve worker complaints about Chiquita labor practices. COLSIBA intends to discuss with its Northern partners early next year a strategy in response to Chiquita's rejection. Meanwhile, a long-standing impasse at two Chiquita suppliers in Guatemala (the Arizona and Alabama plantations) remains unresolved. Although Chiquita did intervene in this case after initially refusing to do so, it says that an offer to rehire 80 to 100 of the 240 workers illegally fired in early 1998 is the best offer that will be made, in part because the two plantations were recently flooded for the second time in two years, creating additional economic strains for the owner, Victor Morales Haeussler. Chiquita was subject to a brief campaign in August when its Honduran union SITRATERCO opposed the company's plans to convert three plantations from bananas into African palm, which requires only about 15 percent of the workforce needed for banana plantations. The union and the company negotiated a resolution to ensure that displaced workers could continue working at other Chiquita plantations, but the union was unable to obtain a pledge from Chiquita to halt any further conversion. <><><><><> DEL MONTE BACKGROUND INFORMATION Following the illegal firing of over 900 workers on Del Monte plantations in Guatemala, the banana union SITRABI planned to use workers' unpaid time off to mount protests. The walk out was thwarted when 200 men armed with high caliber and assault weapons surrounded union headquarters the night before the planned walk out. The armed men forced the five executive committee members and 20 union members to call off the strike, resign from the union and flee from there homes under threat of death. The union members and their families are now in safe homes in Guatemala City. The illegal firings and violent repression have prompted an international outcry. The U.N. agency overseeing the peace process in Guatemala, MINUGUA, called the incident one of the most serious violations of human rights in post-war Guatemala and urged the government to investigate the incident and arrest those responsible. It is difficult to ascertain the degree to which local Del Monte personnel may have been involved in the violent intimidation. Local experts say that, in a small company town like Morales (where the incident occurred), it would have been highly unlikely for the local company representatives not to at least have known what was happening. SITRABI workers are calling for the resignation of a Del Monte engineer who they say was seen talking to a member of the local chamber of commerce two hours before the armed men showed up at union headquarters. Also, BANDEGUA, the Del Monte subsidiary in Guatemala, had in hand the coerced resignations and accepted them until international protests forced the company to backtrack. If you are interested in a free subscription to The Konformist Newswire, please visit http://www.eGroups.com/list/konformist/ and sign up. Or, e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject: "I NEED 2 KONFORM!!!" (Okay, you can use something else, but it's a kool catch phrase.) Visit the Klub Konformist at Yahoo!: http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/klubkonformist ------------------------------------------------------------------------ GRAB THE GATOR! FREE SOFTWARE DOES ALL THE TYPING FOR YOU! Gator fills in forms and remembers passwords with NO TYPING at over 100,000 web sites! Get $100 in coupons for trying Gator! http://clickhere.egroups.com/click/2092 -- Create a poll/survey for your group! -- http://www.egroups.com/vote?listname=konformist&m=1
