Think before you pick up that banana or pineapple

By Didier Leiton, SITRAP union organizer in Costa Rica

The Union of Workers of Agricultural Plantations (Sindicato de Trabajadores de Plantaciones Agricolas – SITRAP), through this letter, wants to inform unions, NGO’s, consumers, local governments, churches, and citizens in general of the working conditions in which bananas and pineapples are produced in Costa Rica. These are, in turn, purchased by the supermarkets in the USA, mostly through Wal-Mart.

1. There is no freedom to organize on the banana and pineapple plantation in Costa Rica.  To illustrate with some examples, we will expose the following:
   1. Union affiliated workers are under the constant threat of being fired
   2. There are “black lists” which include the names of workers that are fired
   3. The constant threat of the closing of plantations if the workers organize
   4. They also use the lowering of salaries and the change of responsibilities (i.e. send workers to perform more difficult, dangerous and less remunerates jobs) to demoralize workers from organizing
   5. Constant firing of unionized workers
   6. Periodic firings, every 3 and 6 months, to prevent unions from forming
   7. The threat of deportation for the migrant workers from Nicaragua, if they affiliate with unions
   8. The use of subcontractors – Companies hire subcontractors who in turn subcontract workers for the companies, and even though some of them work continuously for years, they are never eligible for any benefits or rights. According to the companies, these workers are not direct responsibility of the company.
   9. Constant psychological pressure for workers to leave unions.

2. Low wages are paid to the worker on the banana and pineapple plantations in Costa Rica.  Although in Costa Rica laws that regulate minimum wages for private companies exist, this does not compensate the elevated cost of living.  In addition, many companies that produce these fruits do not pay with these salaries. This causes great damage to the level of life workers and their families. Some examples include:
   1. The salary is not enough to be able to afford adequate nutrition, causing high levels of malnutrition in families.
   2. The salary is so low many cannot afford to offer the opportunity of education to their families. Each day less and less parents can send their children to school and even less can afford middle school, high school, or college.
   3. Workers do not have enough money to be able to rent a dignified home and cannot aspire to owning their own home.
   4. Workers do not have enough money to be able to receive proper health treatment

3. Destruction and contamination of the environment.
   1. The expansion of the plantation of pineapple and banana in recent years have caused the destruction of hundreds of acres of primary forests and with them the species that inhabit these forests. Some of these include monkeys, bears, sloths, iguanas, birds, among others.
   2. They also contaminate the rivers, beaches, small rivers, causing the death and disappearance of tons of fish among other species.
   3. The aquifers and the rural aqueducts that supply multiple communities of drinking water for human consumption are contaminated with highly toxic and dangerous chemicals. This has grave consequences for all the inhabitants of these areas.

4. The excessive use of chemicals in the cultivation of bananas and pineapples case grave dangers to the health of workers on these plantations.
   1. The workers on of this industry work long hours of up to 12 hours. They are exposed to the sun, rain and chemicals. These workers suffer of cancer, sterility, genetic malformations, problems with their visions, skin damage, infections, loss of their fingernails, loss of weight, loss of appetite, headaches, sun stroke, dehydration, among others.

5. The government’s lack of action and its complicity with said companies.
   1. The Department of Labor, the governmental entity in charge of supervising labor rights, has not political will or political power to solve the labor issues.
   2. Governmental authorities that are in charge of watching over health and the protection of the environment have no political will or political power to protect these areas.
   3. In the judicial aspect, the different judicial institutions such as the labor court and judges in charge of environmental affairs, seem to have no will to attend to cases presented or to see them through to the end. Many are extremely slow and the cases that are worked on there, take years to resolve. On numerous occasions they are resolved in favor of the accused, in this case the companies.