How You Can Support Banana Workers

Our friends at the Latin America Working Group (LAWG) circulated a petition to President Barack Obama requesting a new type of policy for Latin American and Caribbean countries. Now is a moment not just to be in opposition, but to create foreign policy that we can believe in.    NOTE:  The petition deadline passed on January 21 but it is still available for reviewing on the LAWG website.

(On-going)   Workers on Dole's banana, pineapple, and flower plantations are calling for a global campaign against the company. Read more about the campaign and find out what you can do.

(On-going)  Violence targeted at trade unionists in Guatemala has been increasing at a disturbing rate. Trade unionists in Guatemala have increasingly been the victims of violence since the implementation of the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) in July 2006, and since the beginning of 2008 at least five trade union-related murders have been reported, as well as the gang rape of a union general secretary’s daughter. Two of those murdered were the son and nephew of a Coca-Cola unionleader, Jose Alberto Vicente Chavez. Last year four other trade unionists were murdered. In all, there have been nine reported trade union-related murders, as well as several attempted murders and drive-by shootings in Guatemala since January 2007.  In the two years prior to CAFTA implementation, no trade unionists were murdered in Guatemala.  For further information, see "Worker Rights Under the New Guaetmalan Government," released by USLEAP in August 2008.

In the early morning hours of Sunday September 23, 2007, Marco Tulio Portela Ramirez prepared to go to work at a Del Monte banana plantation in Izabal, Guatemala. He never made it to work. He was gunned down in front of his house by armed masked men. Marco was the secretary of culture and sport at SITRABI, the union for banana workers in Izabal. He leaves behind a wife and young children. Follow the link above to take action.