Dole Global Campaign

USLEAP joined with 74 other organizations in sending a letter on May 18, 2006 to the Dole Food company, charging it with failing to respect basic workers rights, especially freedom of association, the right to organize and the right to negotiate a contract.

Simultaneously, USLEAP, COLSIBA and six other organizations released a special report entitled, "Dole, Behind the Smoke Screen," documenting Dole worker rights violations in Latin America. USLEAP and other signers of the letter called on Dole "to make a commitment not only on paper, but also in practice." The report is also available in Spanish.

The letter followed an April 1, 2006 letter sent to Dole by the Coordination of Latin American Banana Worker Unions (COLSIBA) demanding that Dole respect fundamental worker rights.

In March 2007, Dole and banana unions in Costa Rica signed a country-specific agreement intended to increase Dole's respect for worker rights. The campaign continues, however, until further advances are made and progress is made on the ground.

In August 2007, USLEAP joined over 50 groups in another sign-on letter to Dole about the company's failure to move forward on worker rights.

In June 2008, conveners of the campaign, including USLEAP, sent another letter to Dole focusing on specific violations in Peru, Ecuador, and Costa Rica that the company.

In July 2008, Dole signed contracts with two flower worker unions in Colombia.  It took the workers nearly four years of struggle to win these first contracts and hundreds of workers lost their jobs during the fight.    Dole is to be congratulated for signing these contracts but the campaign against Dole continues.

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