“Banana workers in Guatemala face new threats as Del Monte menaces to move the production”, 2 Dec 2015

North American fruit company Del Monte has prompted Guatemalan biggest banana workers’ union SITRABI to be more “flexible” if they want farms to remain open…The situation of banana workers’ unions in Guatemala is particularly dramatic…Since 2007, when banana union leader Marco Tulio Ramirez was assassinated, violence against union members has escalated…[including] the murder of other twelve union leaders over the last eight years…In Izabal nearly all 6000 banana workers employed by Chiquita and Del Monte are unionised. SITRABI has also managed to secure workers with a minimum wage and decent working conditions…Worrying reports, however, are coming from the Pacific South of the country, a sort of ‘black hole’ for trade unionism…