A Call for Urgent Solidarity Action

On 23rd June 2003, Alvaro Noboa sacked 70 Los Alamos workers because they had formally presented a draft collective bargaining agreement for social security registration and a living wage to the Ecuadorian labour authorities. The 70 sacked workers were all members and officials of 3 trade unions.

Fenacle requests you to write today to resolve the Los Alamos case once and for all to oblige the owners to respect Ecuador's law and international conventions to make reforms to the labour code to make it impossible for companies to avoid their legal responsibilities by setting up phantom contracting companies.

Letters supporting the banana workers should be sent to:

President Lucio Gutierrez, fax: 00 593 258 0729
and/or
Labour Minister, Dr. Felipe Mantilla, fax: 00 593 250 3122
or Dr Felipe Mantilla

Below is the letter that CTDU sent to President Gutierrex and the Labour Minister to support the banana workers:

I am writing to share my concerns with you regarding the current situation
at the Los Alamos banana plantation and to ask you to take action.

On Monday 23rd June, 70 workers at the giant Los Alamos banana plantation,
owned by Alvaro Noboa, were sacked for no other reason than they had
formally presented a draft collective bargaining agreement with the
Ecuadorian labour authorities the previous Friday.

The workers were all members and officials of the three unions formed last
in the three sub-contracting firms NENRO, BEDUCORP and CLIADES. The workers'
demands to their employer include social security registration (which is a
legal requirement) and a living wage. The presentation of the draft
agreement was in full compliance with Ecuadorian law, whereas the sacking is
a flagrant violation of both Ecuadorian law and international labour
conventions.

This action by the Noboa corporation follows a series of attempts over the
last 18 months to repress workers' attempts to organise for better
conditions.

I am urging you to do all in your power to resolve the Los Alamos case, to
oblige the owners to respect Ecuador's law and international
conventions, and to make reforms to the labour code to make it impossible
for companies to avoid their legal responsibilities by setting up phantom
contracting companies.

Thank you very much for your help. I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely

You can download our letter and send it to President Gutierrex and the Labour Minister to support the banana workers -

	Click here to download the letter using Acrobat reader

Please send e-mail copies of your support to:

fenacle@easynet.net.ec
and
euroban@lycos.com

(Banana Menu)

Ecuadorian Bananas

Mauro's Story

Mauro Romero Carranza has worked over the last six years in banana plantations in Ecuador. He went to work in the banana plantations in search of a better future. During this time, Mauro worked in plantations that belonged to Alvaro Noboa Ponton's business empire. Alvaro Noboa is the fourth largest banana exporter in the world. Noboa is very influential both in political and economic spheres in Ecuador.

To earn his salary, Mauro had to work from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. According to Ecuadorian law, the company must give each worker a bonus once a year to reward the worker for the profits s/he has generated for the company. This bonus must be equivalent to 25% of the average monthly salary the worker has earned throughout the year. Nonetheless, Mauro only once received a bonus - the miserable sum of $2. Is the salary that Mauro and his thousands of co-workers earn working for the largest banana exporter in the world enough to make a decent living in Ecuador? It would be enough to take one look at Mauro to realise that it isn't. His body is far too thin, a young man of 33 - you can see to look at him that he could be athletically built. However, the exhausting work in the bananeras earning miserable wages has drained his body. Mauro suffers malnutrition, just like many others of his colleagues.

Mauro, in solidarity with his colleagues in the Hacienda Los Alamos, took up a labour struggle in February this year, in order to obtain legal recognition for their trade union organisation, payment of their full salaries and the compliance on the part of the employer with a series of other rights and remuneration stipulated in Labour Code and the Laws of the Republic of Ecuador. The company Division Los Alamos declared itself to be unconcerned by the strike since, as official employers of the workers of Los Alamos, there are three different companies:
Beducor S.A., Cliadi S.A., and Nenro S.A.

However, although the workers employment documents are printed by one of these companies, the Division Agricola Industrial Bananera Los Alamos S.A., owned by Alvaro Noboa, was to intervene later in the conflict than the other mentioned companies. This leaves no doubt as to who Mauro and his colleagues' real bosses are, including the women in the packing plants and the kitchens, the men in the fields and the children who are illegally exploited in the plantations.

On 6th May 2002, the 1200 workers of Los Alamos began a strike to have their legal rights fulfilled. Alvaro Noboa responded with indifference and arrogance to the demands of the workers and ordered them to leave the Hacienda. On 16th May, about 400 armed 'sicarios' (hired killers) attacked the workers with firearms, they hit them and they looted their humble homes. Some workers were wounded. A worker received three pellets in the stomach and one in the right temple. However, the most seriously wounded was Mauro. A cartridge shot destroyed his right leg. Due to the cruel and menacing attitude of the attackers, Mauro lost a lot of blood and was left for two hours before his colleagues were allowed to take him to hospital. The attackers openly admitted they were acting by order of Alvaro Noboa.

In the hospital, Mauro's leg was amputated, just above the right knee.
However, before this happened, the hospital refused to attend him because Mauro's employer had not transferred the monthly Social Security fee, although this had been deducted from Mauro's salary. The trade organisation FENACLE signed a compromise to pay so that Mauro would be attended. The same had to happen so that Bernabe Menendez would be attended and the three pellets in his stomach taken out. The fourth pellet, lodged inside his head, would remain there until a later surgical intervention, since at that time Bernabe could not take further treatment.
Now Mauro is trying to learn to walk with two wooden crutches. He stumbles and cannot go up the small steps outside his sister's house without help.

Mauro will live with his sister while he tries to recover with the help of physiotherapy amongst other treatment that he is receiving in a rehabilitation centre. The prescribed painkillers don't have the desired effect. The doctor said that this pain would slowly diminish over the next few months, after the sawed bone, flesh and veins heal. Mauro does not talk about the psychological and emotional pain that his mutilation is causing him.

His brother Jacinto has started the process of obtaining a disability pension. Jacinto also claimed from Mauro's employers the payment of an artificial limb that would cost $5000. A company secretary said that they would take care of it. But there is still no formal commitment or any document that would lead us to believe that the company will guarantee payment. If the employer did pay for the artificial leg, it would not pay the monthly retirement pension. The IESS (the Ecuadorian Social Security) should pay Mauro a retirement pension. Although Mauro has a right to a pension that matches his last salary, in practice IESS generally only pay 25% of this, which means that Mauro would only receive $34 each month.

Mauro has received the solidarity of his trade union and his colleagues in FENACLE, support from his relatives and friends. He has been visited by people from different countries who were, by the nature of their work, taking an interest in the labour conflict of Los Alamos, which turned to bloodshed. And those of us who want to promote solidarity with banana workers visited him. Each visit has left Mauro, his relatives and his colleagues with growing hope. The hope that Mauro is not forgotten and that his own fight as well as his colleagues' will receive the necessary international support until they attain their goal.

(Banana Menu)

Bananas with Chicken
Serves 4

Ingredients

a 3lb chicken (quartered)
4 tablespoons of lemon juice
2 teaspoons of salt
1.5 ozs of butter
2 tomatoes, peeled and chopped
1/8th teaspoonful of sugar
half pint of dry white wine
4 tablespoonfuls of vegetable oil
6 ripe bananas peeled and cut lengthwise
half a pound of grated parmesan cheese
half an ounce of butter
1 medium onion, grated

Method

Season the chicken with the lemon juice and salt. Heat the butter in a flameproof casserole and stir in the onion, tomatoes and sugar. Add the chicken pieces and simmer for 5 minutes uncovered, turning the chicken pieces once.

Add the wine and cover the casserole and simmer until the chicken is tender, about 45 minutes.

Heat the oil in a pan and sauté the bananas until they are lightly browned on both sides. Arrange the bananas cut side down on top of the chicken pieces and sprinkle with the grated cheese. Dot with the butter cut into pieces.
Place the casserole in a preheated oven (200 c Gas mark 5) until the cheese is lightly browned - about 10 minutes.

Serve with rice.

From
The Book of Latin American Cookery by Elizabeth Lamberoritiz

COME BACK SOON FOR MORE DELICIOUS RECIPES!

Why not email us your favourite recipe? just click on this link!

(Banana Menu)

• Buy Fairtrade bananas whenever you can, the next best are from the Windward Island or from the Caribbean
• Tell your friends and family about what you know about banana workers
• Join banana link's Urgent Action list (email or postal updates)
• Check the Internet for information
• organise awareness raising or fundraising activities to coincide with One World Week or Fairtrade fortnight. CTDU and Banana Link can help with advise and supply information.
• Make a banner!
  

Useful websites

Banana Link UK

Fair Trade

The International Union of Foodworkers

US LEAP (Labor Education in the Americas Project)

SiD (Union of General Workers in Denmark)

Human Rights Watch *Tainted Harvest - Child Labour and Obstacles to organising on Ecuador's banana plantations

World Development Movement Scotland (banana section and Glasgow group page)

New York Times web site

For further information you can also contact:
Jan Nimmo, Banana Link Scottish Worker, 0141 357 3803 jan@cacomistle.freeserve.co.uk

UNPEELING BANANAS
4th September 2001

"One topic that touched and inspired me was a woman called Berta Gomez who works on a banana plantation in Nicaragua. She was in Britain to tell us about the working conditions on the plantation and to get some extra funding for the clinic she helps run." Suzi Turner - CTDU Active Citizens group 5, 4th September 2001

Berta has worked for over 22 years in Nicaragua's banana plantations and has accumulated as many responsibilities as her hands have packed bananas.

She is mother of six children - four boys and two girls ranging from 8 to 18 years old - and lives in company housing at the Emma Plantation with her husband. She has done all the different jobs in banana packhouses.

She is a leader in the Rene Espina del Lago Union at the Mariel Plantation near Chinandega, Women's Officer of FETRABACH - the Banana Workers'
Federation of the Department of Chinandega, Nicaragua - and Coordinator of the Women's Clinic.

"I was shocked that they had to pay to get medical attention and to get educated especially when they get paid £1 a day. That means that 50% of children do not attend school even though it is illegal for them not to go." Suzi Turner - Active Citizens group 5

Berta has 8 years' experience as a trade union leader at plantation level,four of them as a member of the Executive Committee. "It gives me a lot of pride to know that people trust me to be responsible for the Women's Secretariat at national level."

The Women's Clinic
The Clinic in Chinandega two has become a source of support to 20% of the women of the area. Although its primary target group is women, they also treat children and old people. Berta points out that the work of the clinic has been very important for training and developing the self-esteem of the women, who now feel they have achieved something for themselves. The most frequent diseases treated there are vaginal ulcers and cancer. "I want to emphasise that the clinic is a not-for-profit organisation which has been set up by banana workers themselves, with particular support from FETRABACH."

(Banana Menu)