Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala
September 2, 1998
Dear Corporate Responsibility and Worker Rights Advocates,
Would you please consider signing the accompanying letter to Chiquita Brands?.
DEADLINE: The deadline is Wednesday, September 9, 3 p.m. Eastern time.
Responses can be sent directly to the U.S./Guatemala Labor Education Project
at usglep@igc.org or faxed to 773-262-6602 or telephoned to 772-262-6502.
This letter to Chiquita is one of the first steps in an international
initiative to persuade Chiquita to improve working conditions and respect
for basic rights of workers on their plantations and those of their
suppliers in Latin America.
SUMMARY: The letter expresses grave disappointment that Chiquita has failed
to respond to three requests for a meeting with a group representing
thousands of Chiquita workers in Central and South America.
The group is the Coordination of Latin American Banana Workers Unions
(COLSIBA), which represents nearly all the major banana worker unions in
Central America, including 20 Chiquita unions, as well as unions in
Columbia. The Coordination was also a primary organizer of the recent
International Banana Conference in Brussels.
USE OF LETTER: The sign-on letter will be released to the press on September
10 when press work will begin simultaneously in Europe, Central America and
the U.S. with a common theme that if Chiquita is the socially-responsible
corporation it claims to be, then it should initiate a dialogue at the
highest level with workers in Central America who report extensive
violations and problems.
BACKGROUND: On July 22, 1998, the Coordination sent a letter requesting a
meeting with Chiquita executives in Cincinnati in order to initiate
discussions to resolve issues of serious concerns to the workers, including
concerns about violations of basic rights and unacceptable working
conditions. A second letter was sent August 5 and a third letter was sent
September 1.
COLSIBA's request has been backed by two separate letters to Chiquita (July
23, 1998 and August 31, 1998) signed by a range of groups including the
International Labor Rights Fund, the Interfaith Center for Corporate
Responsibility's Global Accountability Group, the Campaign for Labor Rights,
the National Labor Committee, Global Exchange, Justice for Banana Workers,
Witness for Peace, the Coalition for Responsible Investment Region VI, the
Network in Solidarity with People of Guatemala, and the U.S./Guatemala Labor
Education Project.
Until now, these letters have not been made public in the hope that Chiquita
would respond positively to a quiet approach. This hope has not been
realized. The only response has been to send a disingenuous August 3
letter from its Honduran subsidiary saying that there are no problems
between Chiquita and its union in Honduras.
The basic demands of this initiative are to ensure the basic rights of
workers on Chiquita-owned plantations and those from which they buy. Key
issues are the right to organize and the right to safe and healthy
workplaces, i.e. the end of health and safety violations especially with
respect to the application of toxic pesticides. A full-blown campaign will
not be launched until October after the unions in Central America finalize a
specific set of demands in a few weeks. As a first step, however, we are
seeking to persuade Chiquita to meet with the Coordination which is the only
region-wide body representing Chiquita workers in Central America..
As you may recall, in May the Cincinnati Enquirer produced a special report
detailing extensive problems with Chiquita's operations in Latin America,
including reports of workers being sprayed by toxic pesticides, anti-union
activities, hidden and illegal subsidiaries, and other objectionable
practices. In late June, however, the Enquirer apologized for its report
and paid Chiquita more than $10 million when it said that its lead reporter
had apparently accessed voice mail tapes of Chiquita executives illegally.
While the initial Enquirer story received scant national press attention,
the apology sparked significant media attention, primarily on the ethics of
journalists but to some degree on the substance of the original story.
The Coordination's request for a meeting is based on the premise that much
of the Enquirer's story accurately describes the day-to-day situation of
Chiquita workers. The Coordination had hoped that the company's current
public exposure due to the Enquirer story and apology would persuade the
company that it should meet with the only region-wide body representing
Chiquita's Central American workers. So far, this has not happened. Hence,
this request for your endorsement of the sign-on letter.
Sincerely,
Stephen Coats
Executive Director
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
September 10, 1998
Mr. Carl Lindner
CEO
Chiquita Brands
Cincinnati, OH
Dear Mr. Lindner:
We understand that a group representing 15,000 [to be reconfirmed] Chiquita
workers in Central America has contacted Chiquita Brands requesting a
meeting in Cincinnati to discuss and resolve serious issues of concerns to
workers who produce Chiquita bananas.
We write to express our sincere disappointment that Chiquita Brands has
failed to respond to these requests for a meeting. We wish to add our
voices to those of others who have encouraged you to agree to a meeting in
Cincinnati between high-level Chiquita executives and the Coordination of
Latin American Banana Workers Unions, which represents a substantial number
of your banana workers and those of your suppliers in Central America.
In its initial July 22, 1998 letter to Mr. Robert Kistinger, President and
CEO of the Chiquita Banana Group, the Coordination made its case:
We have observed with concern the worsening labour situation in your
company's banana plantations, in particular the violations of human and
workers' rights and of the freedom to organise trade unions, conflicts over
collective agreements, abuses of working hours, and a failure to deal with
specific issues raised by individual trade unions....
In the face of such a situation, we are formally requesting a meeting with
representatives from the head office in Cincinnati, in order to open a round
of dicussions which could lead to a resolution of these problems; in cases
where labour conflicts are generating a negative economic impact which the
workers themselves are suffering, our interest is to be able to present,
through dialogue, solutions to the various problems....
There exists amongst our members the will to initiate, in good faith, a
process in which ... a constructive dialogue is initiated which is able to
satisfy the need for solutions to be found...
The Coordination wrote Mr. Kistinger again on August 5 and once more on
September 1 requesting the meeting and initiation of a dialogue to resolve
their concerns. So far, there has been no response from Mr. Kistinger.
As you know, Chiquita has received substantial critical coverage in the past
three months, some of which is no doubt inaccurate. Much of the criticism
has to do with Chiquita operations in Central America and the situation of
workers who produce Chiquita bananas. We urge Chiquita to take advantage of
this opportunity to demonstrate its commitment to corporate responsibility
and to its workers by initiating high-level and good faith discussions with
the Coordination to resolve issues of concern to the workers who produce
Chiquita bananas.
Thank you for your consideration of our views on this matter. We look
forward to your response, which can be communicated to each of us
individually or through the U.S./Guatemala Labor Education Project.
Sincerely,
NISGUA
The Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala
1830 Connecticut Ave. NW
Washington DC 20009
Tel:(202) 518 7638
Fax: (202) 223 8221
email: nisgua@igc.apc.org
web site: http://www.scruz.net/~goyo/nisgua/home.html
