In the distinctly agro-industrial region of northern Costa Rica, devoted primarily to pineapple and banana crops, more than 200 Chiquita Brands workers were illegally dismissed so that the transnational corporation could evict them and demolish their houses. We spoke about this with Didier Leitón Valverde, general secretary of the Union of Agricultural Plantation Workers (SITRAP).
The League joins IUF Latin America to stand in solidarity with Odilia Caal Có, General Secretary of her factory union SITRAWinners-FESTRAS in Guatemala.
Odilia Caal Có, local leader in a branch of the IUF-affiliated Federación Sindical de Trabajadores de la Alimentación y Afines Servicios y Similares (FESTRAS) was brutally beaten earlier this month in an attack which left her with multiple injuries including a broken rib. The attack took place in an export processing zone (maquiladora) on the premises of Winners Textil.
Odilia Caal Có, general secretary of the Winner Workers’ Union (Sitrawinner), was held against her will in the offices of the company, where she was beaten and threatened until she signed a statement withdrawing from the union. The Korean-owned Winners Textil maquiladora company makes clothes for several companies that are very well-known around the globe. In that microcosm, labor persecution is characterized by brutally violent practices and vicious harassment.
Impunity, greed, economic, social, and political terrorism perpetrated by criminal elites, foolishness, hypocrisy, and ignorance—these are the real fuels igniting the Amazon fires. The forest is being consumed in those fires, along with thousands of human beings whose lives are deemed to be worth less than the spark that sets off the fires.
Having achieved no progress either in the good offices stage, the Number 1 and 2 Unions of Nestlé Graneros and the Nestlé Los Ángeles Union have begun a strike for an indefinite period of time, starting on Wednesday, August 5.
Workers organized in the Number 1 and 2 Unions of Nestlé Graneros and the Nestlé Los Ángeles Union voted on July 24 to go on strike to pressure the transnational corporation into sitting down to negotiate with Labor Ministry mediators.
The president of the Number 2 Union of Nestlé Graneros denounces the difficulties workers are facing in the collective bargaining process, the obstacles placed by the company in the way of plant-level unions, and management’s failure to recognize labor organization.
On July 1st, the IUF’s Meat Industry Division held a teleconference with the participation of some 40 union leaders from the sector. Alberto Fantini, secretary general of Argentina’s Labor Federation of Meat and Meat Byproduct Industry Workers, reported on the situation in the sector and the COVID-19 pandemic. Below are the key points of his presentation.
Carlos Velastegui, general secretary of the Labor Committee of Nestlé Ecuador Workers, an IUF affiliate, spoke with La Rel about the irresponsible way the transnational corporation has behaved in that country, where it has been negligent in the application of safety protocols and has further failed to comply with the collective bargaining agreement in the midst of an unprecedented global crisis.