 |
In June 2001, Chiquita signed a path-breaking agreement with its
unions and the
International Union of Foodworkers to respect worker rights.
The agreement could go
a long way to protecting unions in the industry and their wages
and benefits. The
agreement represents a remarkable shift in Chiquita's relations
to its unions and its
critics, and represents the culmination of a three-year effort
that began in 1998.
Looking for a Regional Strategy
Chiquita is the oldest banana transnational operating in Central
America, and the most
heavily unionized. Formerly the infamous United Fruit Company,
Chiquita has been
the primary target of worker rights and environmental activists,
especially in Europe,
for the past several years.
In 1998, a trans-Atlantic alliance led by the European Banana Action
Network
(EUROBAN) and US/LEAP, began a campaign focused on Chiquita to
fight for a
regional strategy to improve banana worker conditions, especially
on its non-union
operations. The trans-Atlantic campaign coincided with an internal
decision by
Chiquita management to engage its critics in the face of growing
negative publicity in
Europe and a controversial expose in its hometown newspaper,
the Cincinnati Enquirer.
Chiquita therefore agreed to meet in November 1998 for the first
time ever with the
regional organization of banana workers, the Coordination of
Latin American Banana
Worker Unions (COLSIBA). Chiquita rejected a proposal from COLSIBA
to negotiate
a regional agreement, but Chiquita and COLSIBA continued to meet
regularly.
In 2000, the International Union of Foodworkers, which represents
unions in the food
and agricultural sector all over the world, and COLSIBA began
meeting jointly with
Chiquita.
After a year of discussions, Chiquita, the IUF, and COLSIBA signed
on June 14, 2001
in Geneva what both the IUF and Chiquita called a "historic"
agreement. The agreement
commits Chiquita to respect international conventions with respect
to worker rights as
well as "lays the basis for joint union/management efforts to
address long-standing
worker health and environmental concerns in the banana industry."
See the Chiquita agreement text with Unions and the IUF
open the pdf file: chiquitaagreement.pdf
text sources:
www.usleap.org/Banana/bananatemp.html#chiquita
www.iuf.org
|