Call # 255 December 2002

The crisis through which the banana sector has been going for the past few years is adversely affecting millions of Latin American peasants’ working conditions, while US banana multinationals are closing one plantation after the next in the region. Although peasants’ and farm labourers’ lot was not enviable, they had managed to secure some labour rights. One of the main reasons for the current crisis is overproduction with resulting price cuts, and Ecuador is the main culprit. Since 1999 this country has constantly increased its production at unbeatable prices. This is possible because of the low wages paid to unorganized seasonal labour and non-observance of labour regulations. Lucio Gutierrez, the new president elected last November, seems determined to implement a series of social reforms. For workers on Ecuadorian banana plantations there is hope.

25 February 2002 is a date to remember. On that day banana plantation workers in Ecuador held their first major strike in 20 years. Close to Naranjal in Guayas province, on the Alamos plantation owned by the company Noboa (the fourth biggest banana multinational), 1,400 labourers stopped work to defend their rights. They called for application of Ecuadorian social legislation, including payment of overtime, a social insurance fund, access to medical care, job security and decent wages. The workers decided to form a union to defend their interests.

Plantation managers were quick to react: 123 unionized workers were dismissed.

In May a new strike was organized, in compliance with legal procedures, mainly to protest against those sackings.

On the night of 16 May 2002 plantation workers were attacked in their homes by 300 masked armed henchmen. There were nineteen injuries. In a second attack the following day more people were injured.

UNIONIZATION CAMPAIGN

After six months of national and international mobilization(1), the company Noboa implicitly recognized its involvement in those attacks and accepted some of the strikers’ demands. Yet no commitment was made concerning trade union rights.

For over a year, in this context of social tension, FENACLE (2) has been promoting unionization in Ecuador’s three banana-growing provinces. Only a few over 1,000 of the 360,000 banana plantation workers are union members.

Yet working conditions are harsh: wages at barely half the essential minimum, long working days (10-12 hours) in particularly difficult conditions, exposure to chemicals, etc.

In general, working conditions on Ecuadorian plantations are far worse than those of their Latin American competitors which until now have shared the world market.

According to a study undertaken in 2000 by the US organization US/LEAP, on a representative sample of Ecuadorian workers, the average monthly wage of a plantation worker in Ecuador is 56 dollars, compared to over 500 dollars in Panama, 200 dollars in Costa Rica and between 120 and 150 dollars in Guatamala, countries for which Réseau-Solidarité has mobilized support several times (1).

ECUADOR, THE GOOD STUDENT

Ecuador currently owes its position as the world’s main exporter of bananas (a third of which go to Europe) to its incredibly low production costs and the fact that workers in the sector are not organized.

Overproduction and stiff competition from Ecuador are the source of the world banana market crisis. Major US multinationals in the sector (Chiquita, Dole and Del Monte) are gradually closing their plantations in the rest of Central America and trying to move into Ecuador in order to recover a competitive position and benefit from weak labour laws.

Faced with this situation, FENACLE and COLSIBA (Latin American coordination of banana workers) urge their partners in the North and the South to take action to put an end to this race for low prices that is currently crushing Ecuadorian workers and threatening, in the long run, all agricultural workers and small producers in Central America.

The new Ecuadorian President based his election campaign on major social reform. He is to take up office in January 2003. FENACLE and COLSIBA are expecting him to keep his promises and are scheduled to meet him in mid-January.

In Europe a card campaign congratulating the new President elect and wishing him well has been launched by EUROBAN to support them (see the section Further Reading).

(1) Previous Réseau Solidarité calls concerning bananas: Call 246 (April 2002-Ecuador); Call 223

(May 2000-Costa Rica); Call 213 (November 99-Guatemala); Call 205 (March 99-Chiquita); and Call 201 (January 99-Guatemala).

(2) FENACLE is a trade union grouping together small producers, indigenous populations and farm workers.

Further reading

EUROBAN is an umbrella organization grouping together over 20 associations and trade unions in various European countries (France, Italy, the UK, Germany, Denmark, Ireland, and others). The organization’s aim is to make people aware of issues concerning the world banana market, to participate in campaigns to support banana workers, and to set up and coordinate common actions (tool production, lobbying, etc.).

POST CARD CAMPAIGN

Members of EUROBAN met COLSIBA and FENACLE in Brussels last November. The launching of this "Best wishes for the new Ecuadorian President campaign" was decided then. The aim is to support the demands submitted by the two unions to the new President during a meeting scheduled for January.

The post cards (all identical) are to be sent to Banana Link (a British NGO) which will collect them and forward them all together to COLSIBA.

COLSIBA and FENACLE representatives will personally give them to the President at their meeting.

To write...

NB: Exceptionally, we ask you to use the attached greetings card to write to Président Gutierrez (see section Further Reading).

If you wish, you may copy the text proposed in English on your own greetings card.

Stamp: 0,46 €

Mr Lucio Gutierrez,

President of Ecuador

C/0 Banana Link

38 Exchange Street

Norwich NR2 1 AX

England

BONNE ANNEE ET MEILLEURS VOEUX AU NOUVEAU PRESIDENT D’EQUATEUR

La difficile situation des travailleurs de la Banane en Equateur (premier exportateur mondial de bananes), a attiré toute mon attention.

J’espere que vous userez de vos nouvelles prérogatives de Président d’Equateur pour faire en sorte que le Code du Travail et les conventions de l’OIT, dont votre pays est signataire, soient pleinement appliqués dans les plantations de bananes.

Je soutiens fermement les demandes de réforme du code du Travail formulées par la CEOSL (Confédération syndicale équatorienne)et la FENACLE (syndicat agricole) concernant:

  le droit de négociation collective par secteur d’activité et non plus par plantation

  la réduction du nombre minimum de salariés requis pour la formation d’un syndicat de 30 à 15 salariés

  la limitation du nombre de travailleurs saisonniers dans chaque plantation à 20 % de la main d’oeuvre.

En tant que consommateur, je resterai vigilant quant à l’évolution de la situation en Equateur.

Je vous prie...

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