Alberta, November-December 2007
17
ALTERNATIVA Latinoamericana
ENGLISH SECTION
On September 23rd Marco Tulio Portela Ramirez
was brutally gunned down outside his home as he
prepared to go to work at the Bandegua banana
plantation, a subsidiary of Del Monte Fresh Produce.
Do you eat Del Monte bananas? Do you notice
where your bananas come from? Are you willing to
take a moment of your time to help the workers
whose labor sends over a million tons of bananas to
the Unites States each year?
The production of bananas in Guatemala takes
place in large monoculture plantations where labor
conditions are very poor. Workers receive low wages
which often don't cover the basic needs of their
families and endure long 12-hour work days and
exposure to dangerous chemicals. Yet employees
lack the freedom to organize independent trade unions
and negotiate agreements with their employers in
order to improve these working conditions. Those who
have tried to organize have come under attack from
both transnational banana companies and
independent banana producers. Illegal firings,
plantation closures, temporary contracts, civil law
suits, trumped up criminal charges, and violence
targeting union leaders have all become
commonplace. So far in 2007, four unionists have
been assassinated and no charges have been made
against the guilty parties.
According to the International Confederation of
Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), the Guatemalan
Constitution recognizes workers' freedom of
association and states that all workers retain the right
to form and join trade unions. Workers have the right
to organize and bargain collectively under the
condition that 25% of the total workers are in
agreement and possess the right to strike provided
that 50% support the strike.
The Constitution also provides for a judicial
system to rule specifically on violations of the Labor
Code. Unfortunately, the labor courts in Guatemala
are overrun with backlogged cases that can drag on
for years. Even when they issue rulings, the courts
have insufficient power to ensure that their decisions
are respected. Consequently, employers tend to
dismiss the Labor Code and are rarely held
accountable for illegal firings, negligent work
conditions and violence against union organizers.
Del Monte, the third largest producer of
bananas, is owned and controlled by the Chilean-
based IAT Group (their capital is held in the United
Arab Emirates) and maintains its headquarters in
Miami, Florida. As of 2005, Del Monte controlled
about 15% of the world banana trade. Along with the
other major banana producers like Chiquita and Dole,
they wield a great deal of power in Latin America and
can sell bananas to the northern markets at an
extremely cut-rate price. According to a French
research institute CIRAD, "only 12% of the final retail
price stays in the producing countries. An even
smaller proportion goes to small farmers (5-7%) or to
plantation workers (1-3%)". The rest is profit in the
pockets of the CEO's and investors.
Bandegua, the Guatemalan subsidiary of Del
Monte, is one of many companies with a long history
of targeting trade unionists. In 1999, Bandegua
dismissed 900 workers who were involved in the
Banana Workers Union of Itzabal (SITRABI), the
oldest and one of the most powerful unions in
Guatemala. On October 13th of that year, a heavily
armed attack was led against the union organizers
who were planning a massive protest in response to
the dismissals. Consequently, seven members of
SITRABI fled to the US to defend their lives and
pursued a case against Bandegua. As a response,
Guatemala: Banana Workers
Union Leader Assassinated
the US government placed Guatemala's trade benefits
on probation until Guatemalan courts convicted the
criminals. Unfortunately, due to the sustained violence
in Guatemala, the seven organizers continue to live in
the US.
On March 7th, 2000, The International Union of
Food and Agriculture Workers (UIF) signed an
agreement with Del Monte Fresh Produce, which set
up local negotiations between Bandegua and SITRABI
and committed the company to respecting minimum
labor standards. The new agreement ensured that all
900 workers who were illegally fired be allowed to
return to their jobs and explicitly stated that all
workers had the right to join SITRABI.
Although all parties signed the agreement, acts
of violence and intimidation continue. In November of
2006, Cesar Humberto Guerra, the Labor and Conflicts
Secretary of SITRABI, was followed by three armed
men while driving through the Chicasaw banana
plantations in a vehicle owned by SITRABI. The men
fired their guns in the air and threw a stone at the
windshield of the car.
In July, 2007, military officers forcibly entered a
SITRABI union meeting demanding to know the
identity of the union's leaders, the size of its
membership and the nature of its occupation. In
response, SITRABI filed complaints with the Public
Ministry and the Ministry of Defense in Guatemala,
who promised there would be an "internal
investigation." According to a statement by the
Solidarity Center, "Military officers had been
disciplined by the Ministry of Defense in response to
SITRABI complaints about the unlawful entry."
Five days later, on the morning of September 23,
Marco Tulio Portela Ramirez was brutally gunned
down in front of his house by armed masked men
carrying high caliber weapons as he prepared to go to
work at the Bandegua banana plantation. Marco was
the Secretary of Culture and Sport at SITRABI and his
brother Noé Ramirez is the General Secretary.
According to STITCH, a nationwide group of women
organizing for social justice, SITRABI strongly
believes that this killing is directly related to their fight
to end the intimidation and harassment of the union.
In his statement on September 30th, Noé
Ramirez declared, "At the wake and burial of my
brother's mortal remains, I saw how hundreds of
workers who were there with us cried at the loss of a
fellow unionist, but also how we all committed
ourselves to continue forward with our struggle,
refusing to be silenced, because we are not alone: we
are supported by allies all over the world...I would like
to ask you all to keep pressuring the government and
the rest of the Guatemalan authorities so that they will
immediately investigate and solve Marco Tulio's
murder, and punish both the material and intellectual
perpetrators of this crime and their accomplices."
In response to this assassination, Solidarity
Center Executive Director Ellie Larson said, "The
systematic attacks on SITRABI constitute backsliding
on worker rights enforcement in Guatemala. No worker
should lose his life for exercising a fundamental right
to participate in a union. Together we must break
down the wall of impunity and rebuild respect for
worker and human rights."
Contact the Guatemalan Ambassador in the
United States and urge the Guatemalan government
(ambassador@guatemala-embassy.org.) to
investigate this case and bring those responsible to
justice.
Kimberley Kern
(www.dissidentvoice.org)
UN Observer:
'Massive Crisis'
in Vancouver
Miloon Kothari, the UN Special Rapporteur for
Housing, recently visited Canada on a fact-finding
mission to look at the issues of homelessness,
Aboriginal housing issues, women's housing issues
and the impact of the 2010 Olympic Games in
Vancouver. Mr. Kothari granted this interview during
his recent visit.
-What have you noticed in
Canada so far? Let's start with
Montreal and Quebec?
It's certainly not a perfect situation, but they do
have very entrenched social policies and are very
conscious of the need for social housing. With
Quebec, we have a province that continued to fund
social housing after the federal cuts [in the early
1990s], so there is a commitment within the
government of a social leaning towards housing
policies. That being said, the problems... are present
in Montreal. There is evidence of gentrification in the
city and displacement and pushing low-income people
out. We went to the Kahnawake reserve and spoke to
aboriginal leaders there. There were chiefs from four
different territories, including from the northern parts,
testimonies and information on the housing and living
conditions in the territories which are, of course, very
disturbing.
-How was Ottawa?
Homelessness in Ottawa is not as visible as you
would see in other places in Canada, like Edmonton
or Toronto. There is a hidden homelessness, there is a
large crisis in housing, high density situations, there
are not enough facilities for women escaping domestic
violence. The problems in Ottawa are the same issue
of affordability and gentrification, and again,
disproportionate representation of women and
aboriginal people who are affected by homelessness.
-How was your visit to
Edmonton?
We visited a house and apartment where
immigrant families are staying. It was very disturbing.
The officials said it was because of the boom, but
homelessness is very visible. There is also large drug
related problem. And, of course, again, there is over-
representation amongst specific groups. There is a
need for shelters for women, single mothers, children.
We also visited the Lubicon Territory because
the UN has been following that case for some time. It
was the first on-site visit there. We met with the chief
and elders and saw their homes -- in all the homes,
there is no potable drinking water available, and the
sanitation is very poor.
We toured the area where the oil exploration is
going on. We were very concerned about the
Lubicon... they are being actively pushed out, lands
are being taken away, the area is being polluted. We
will certainly take their situation up as a violation of
their rights.
-What about Vancouver?
There is a deep homelessness problem here. I
must say I was taken aback by the scale of the crisis
here in the Downtown Eastside. It's glaringly
apparent in Vancouver that for quite some time...
successive governments have failed to create the
housing that is necessary. You have a legacy of
misguided government policy that has led to this
massive crisis in housing and homelessness.
We didn't hear this in other places. The decrepit
nature of SROs, the conditions of the buildings that
people are living in, very poor health...I was repeatedly
struck by the contrast that I see because it is such a
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