Flower Worker Campaigns and Initiatives

The Dole Flower Worker Justice Campaign

The largest grower and exporter of flowers from Colombia has been Dole, which has also been the largest exporter of flowers from Latin America to the U.S.  NOTE:  In February 2009, Dole sold its Latin American flower operations.  The Dole Flower Worker Justice Camapign is currently suspended but the Dole Global Campaign, below, continues.  

Background:  Workers at Dole’s largest flower plantation in Colombia began organizing in November 2004 to fight for better wages and working conditions.  After a two-year struggle against Dole’s anti-union actions, the company announced in October 2006 that it would close the plantation in 2007.  Dole has refused to provide evidence to justify the closing on economic terms. USLEAP and others consider the closing an anti-union shutdown. Workers at a second Dole plantation in Colombia, Fragancia, report that the company has used the same tactics as at Splendor. 

Workers at both plantations brought their long struggles with the company to a close in July 2008 when Dole and the unions signed collective bargaining agreements.  Ensuring that the new owner respects these contracts is a high priority for 2009.

The Dole Global Campaign 

Dole’s denial of worker rights in the flower and banana sectors prompted a global campaign against the company that began in 2006.  USLEAP has joined with dozens of other organizations in denouncing Dole and urging it to make a commitment “in practice” to respect the basic rights of workers.

Bochica Farms

Workers at this flower plantation formed the only existing flower union in the region of Antioquia, Colombia in January 2007.  Within days, they faced illegal firings, intimidation from management, and death threats from paramilitaries in the region.  The remaining union members continued their struggle for over a year in spite of these obstacles, but the union was finally destroyed in July 2008 when the company replaced the workers with temporary workers.

USLEAP's Flower Worker Economic Justice Project has been supported in part by the Berger-Marks Foundation.