Women Workers in the Banana Industry

Carmen rises early in the morning to head to her job at the packing plant at the banana finca (plantation) in Guatemala where she lives and works. Like most of the women working in the banana industry, she is tired and sore from the back-breaking labor and having worked for almost 3 months without a day off. However, Carmen is unusual. She is a member of a strong union on the banana finca where she works. The union has insured that women like Carmen now have access to a bathroom and safety equipment to protect them from the harsh chemicals and pesticides used in growing bananas. But she knows that she and her union will continue to face challenges because of increasing demands for cheaper production and the threat to move production elsewhere if workers don't comply. The company where Carmen works recently obtained a contract with Wal-Mart, and she'll have to take two extra steps (weighing and pricing the bananas) without a reduction in her production goals. And for all of this, she will earn $5.50 a day.

Unfortunately, many women around the region do not have a strong union fighting for their rights. For those women, the work at the banana fincas is even harder. As residents of the largest consumer country of bananas, women and men in the United States can play a major role in shaping this industry and the conditions for workers who toil to bring bananas to their tables every day. By working in solidarity with the workers in Central America , activists can truly make a difference by challenging the current system and its negative impact on workers, their families, and their communities.

Banana Basics

Bananas are produced in countries throughout Latin America , the Caribbean , Asia , and Africa . The largest exporter of bananas to the United States is Ecuador , followed by Costa Rica , the Philippines, Colombia, Guatemala , Honduras and finally Panama . [1] The United States is the single largest importing country, with a market share of 33%. Next is the European Union, with a 26% market share. [2] Currently, bananas are one of the most profitable items in a grocery store, where up to 2% of a store's profit can be made by bananas.

Banana exports have traditionally been dominated by “The Big Three” companies: Chiquita, Dole, and Del Monte. These three companies control 2/3 of the world market. [3] However, the Ecuador-based Noboa Company is rapidly gaining ground. Noboa pays workers misery-level wages and violently crushes union efforts. Led by Alvaro Noboa, who has twice run unsuccessfully for the Ecuadorian presidency, Noboa has a documented history of violating workers' rights in order to significantly lower the prices of production on his banana fincas. In one example, Nobao admitted in 2002 that a group of over 200 armed thugs that attacked union workers were led by employees of the corporation. The Ireland-based company Fyffe's, which controls a large share of import licenses for the extremely profitable European market, is also growing quickly, mainly by buying bananas from Noboa.

Like many other agricultural commodities, the banana industry is currently facing a crisis. There are many different factors behind this crisis, including:

•  Environmental disasters like Hurricane Mitch and El Niño in 1998 caused massive crop destruction. Hurricane Mitch, for example, destroyed 85% of Honduras ' banana crop; thousands of workers in Honduras and Guatemala lost their jobs. Following the hurricane, many companies chose to re-plant with the cheaper, less labor-intensive African palm, so most of these jobs were never recovered.

•  Saturation of markets. Many producers predicted that the fall of the Soviet Union would open up a vast new market of middle-class people willing to pay high prices for exotic fruit. Producers rushed to expand their plantations and increase production. When the hoped-for market failed to materialize, the sector found itself in an overproduction crisis, which in turn provoked pricing wars between countries to provide the best and cheapest bananas. [4]

•  Consolidation of global markets . While some small and medium-sized local producers have been able to take advantage of the growing European Fair Trade and organic markets, most who wish to export are forced to sell their fruit to the Big Five—Chiquita, Dole, Del Monte, Noboa, and Fyffe's, which control up to 70% of the market. Banana companies, however, must answer to more powerful corporations: Supermarkets and Big Box stores. In 2000, the top five retailers served 42% of the market, compared with only 24% in 1997. [5] Increasingly, these supermarkets have power to demand extremely low prices for bananas.

Although a variety of reasons account for the banana industry crisis, there is only one result: workers bear the cost--in lost jobs, reduced wages, and weaker unions.

Women Workers in the Banana Sector

Nearly half a million women live and work in the banana zones throughout Latin America . Women's work on the banana plantations is concentrated in the packing plant, where bananas are prepared for shipping to foreign markets, one of the lowest paying jobs on the fincas. Women are principally involved in the desmane , or cutting of fruit into small bunches. Women also wash and select fruit, separating bananas destined for the US market—which must be large and unblemished—from those of lesser quality destined for the local market. Women also prepare the fruit for packaging, applying preservative substances and stickers, and pack the fruit in boxes for shipping. [6]

Work in the packing houses is fast-paced, physical labor. As producers strive to keep up with market pressures, women workers see themselves obligated to meet higher and higher production goals, which frequently lead s to repetitive motion injuries. Other risks identified by women banana workers include psychological strain due to high production goals, sexual harassment, and constant dampness as a result of working all day alongside huge vats of water.

Many workers suffer negative health impacts from working at banana plantations. Women workers are often doubly affected by chemicals sprayed on banana plants. First, they come into direct contact with these chemicals when they handle fruit in the packing plant. This can cause skin allergies and respiratory ailments, which are worse still if workers are not provided gloves. Second, women living on or near plantations come into contact with these chemicals again at home in domestic tasks involving pesticide-contaminated water. [7]

There is only work in the packing plant when there is fruit. In the periods when there is no fruit, many women workers find themselves unemployed. Even during the harvest, many women do not have stable work hours. When there is a lot of fruit, they may be forced to work many long days in a row; when there is less fruit, they may work only a three- or four-day week. 3 Nonetheless, they are kept “on call,” which makes it very difficult to have a part-time job to supplement their income. Many women banana workers are single mothers, and the average family in the banana zones has five members. The majority of women banana workers have not been able to finish primary school. An estimated 35% cannot read or write. [8]

Banana Unions: Struggling against the “Race to the Bottom”

An Overview of Average Daily Wages [9]

*While women's daily wage is generally the same as men's on union plantations, women's actual earnings tend to be from 40-70% less since they can only work when there is fruit ready to be packed.

Since the late 1950s, banana workers in Central America have generally worked on plantations owned by Dole, Chiquita and Del Monte. Many, though not all, of these plantations were unionized. Through years of organizing and hard-fought labor struggles, by the 1990s banana workers enjoyed some of the highest wages and best job security among agricultural workers in the region. Then the “Race to the Bottom” began, as producers searched for cheaper sources of labor to save on costs and avoid responsibility for working conditions. The “Race to the Bottom” in the banana sector is fueled by multinational corporations' use of independent, anti-union, and non-union producers, where workers are paid substantially less as noted in the above graph. Of the three primary producers, more and more Del Monte banana production is being shifted away from plantations that are direct subsidiaries. Dole is using a combination of joint ventures and independent producers, and only Chiquita retains a large percentage of its own production. In making these changes, banana companies are responding to those further up on the globalization food chain: stockholders and supermarket chains. Both want to see production costs cut in order to boost their own profits .

The supermarket chain-fueled Race to the Bottom intersects with other factors to further challenge union stability. After Hurricane Mitch, many Central American banana plantations chose to replant with African palm instead of banana plants. African palm (used to make palm oil) requires significantly fewer workers than bananas, so when a plantation turns over to African palm, many workers—unionists—lose their jobs. Also, in Ecuador , banana unions were virtually destroyed in the 1970s, and repression of union efforts there continues. Moreover, exporters like Noboa are often able to avoid paying even official minimum prices due to lax or corrupt enforcement. Ecuadorian bananas are cheaper and more profitable for multinationals and supermaket chains in comparison to bananas from other Latin American countries.

Banana unions throughout Latin America have not taken these challenges lying down. They have joined together to confront these issues by creating COLSIBA, or the Coordinadora Latinoamericana de Sindicatos Bananeros (Latin American Coordination of Banana Unions) in 1993 to strengthen solidarity among banana unions and enable them to negotiate jointly with multinationals. Many of the Central and Latin American unions are also affiliated to the IUF – the International Union of Food Workers. Due to a very effective international campaign run by COLSIBA, the IUF, and US/LEAP (U.S. Labor Education in the Americas Project), Chiquita recognized its responsibility for working conditions on its suppliers' plantations in a Regional Worker Rights Agreement signed in 2001.

Banana Trade Wars: New Challenges for Banana Workers
After a challenge in the World Trade Organization brought by the United States , the European Union is poised to change their rules on banana purchasing by 2006. Currently, the trade laws of the European Union favor banana producing countries that were former European colonies, as well as subsidizing EU producers because of their higher costs of production. In contrast, bananas produced in Latin American include tariffs (taxes) and are subject to quotas or export ceilings. Even with these added costs, bananas are purchased for a higher price in the European Union compared to the United States . With the change in the market, many banana companies are concerned that their already low profits (in the face of the pressure of Supermarkets) will drop even lower. There are a number of different proposals on how the EU will meet this challenge from the WTO to change their system. EUROBAN, an nonprofit organization in Europe organizing for the rights of workers and small farmers supports moving to a tariff-only system and giving aid to any workers or small farmers who are harmed by the transition. But, ultimately, the shift in the market will again lead to workers being hard hit, no matter which plan is chosen. As more and more companies look only at the bottom line, it is vital that consumers begin to push back. [10]

TAKE ACTION IN SOLIDARITY
Banana workers in Central America are doing their part by organizing and supporting Unions throughout the region. However, they can not win these important victories without support from consumers. Below are a few action steps you can take and encourage others in your community, union, or women's group to take with you.

Supermarkets in the United States are having a bigger role in setting the price, and therefore the salaries of workers in Central America . Next time you are shopping ask to speak to the produce manager. Ask him or her where they purchase their bananas from. In the next year, fairly traded union produced bananas may become available in the U.S. market. Ask your supermarket to buy them.

Big Box Stores , such as Wal-Mart, are the leading economic force behind the race to the bottom. Their desire for lower prices comes at a huge cost to thousands of workers around the world, even in the United States . Educate your friends and family and help them find better places to shop.

Better Trade Policies are vital to protecting workers around the world. Contact your elected officials and encourage them to include rights and protections for workers in trade agreements. You can find their contact information at http://www.house.gov or http://www.senate.gov.

Join STITCH's Action Email Alert! Send your name and email address to STITCH at stitch@stitchonline.org . We will let you know when you can take action to target specific laws and corporations.

3 Interview with Bob Perillo, US/LEAP, September 2002

[1] History of the Banana Industry, Speech prepared by Bob Perillo, US/LEAP, February, 2005.

[2] History of the Banana Industry, Speech prepared by Bob Perillo, US/LEAP, February, 2005.

[3] Mujeres Trabajadoras Bananeras: Desafios y Esperanzas,” COLSIBA, April 2002.

[4] “Projections for Supply and Demand of Bananas to 2005,” Committee on Commodity Problems, Intergovermental Group on Bananas and Tropical Fruits, May 1999.

[5] Perillo, Bob. Interview.

[6] “Health Risks for Women Banana Workers.” Ana Victoria Naranjo, ASEPROLA, 1999.

[7] IBID

[8] IBID

[9] Supplied by German Zepeda, COLSIBAH General Secretary, 2002.

[10] EUROBAN and Banana Link, http://www.bananalink.org.uk/