US/Labor Education in the Americas Project Newsletter
December 1999

Two hundred armed men have forced Del Monte's Guatemalan union leadership and their families to flee for their lives, putting the future of the oldest union in Guatemala in doubt. The union was planning a walkout in mid-October to protest the illegal firings of 25% of the union's membership by Fresh Del Monte's Guatemalan subsidiary, part of a wave of massive firings, plantation shutdowns and cost-cutting throughout Central America in response to the growing crisis in the world banana industry.

Del Monte's handling of the Guatemala situation raises serious concerns that banana companies will use the crisis to break Central American banana unions, already weakened by Hurricane Mitch's devastation last year. Banana unions are generally the strongest private sector unions in the region, and their demise would have profound consequences for the Central American labor movement.

An international campaign has been launched against Fresh Del Monte Produce for the firings and its failure to respond to the violence against the leadership of its 52-year old Guatemalan banana union, SITRABI (Sindicato de Trabajadores Bananeros de Izabal). Organizations involved in the international campaign include the Geneva-based International Union of Foodworkers, the AFL-CIO, members of the European Banana Action Network, the U.S./Labor Education in the Americas Project, the Campaign for Labor Rights, Witness for Peace, NISGUA, and others.

Del Monte has taken a hard-line and in early December was allowing in replacement workers even while union leaders remained in a "safe house" guarded by the National Police near Guatemala City. The new workers are being paid 20% less than the SITRABI workers and, worse, have none of their critical benefits, including housing, health care, and education for the workers' children.

Illegal Firings

On September 27, BANDEGUA (Compania de Desarollo Bananero de Guatemala), a subsidiary of Fresh Del Monte Produce, notified close to 900 workers from the district of Bobos in Morales, Guatemala that they were being dismissed and that the three plantations would be rented out to independent producers. This act was a violation of the collective bargaining agreement, according to Guatemalan Labor Minister Luis Linares, who took out a full-page newspaper ad to declare the firings illegal and to call on Del Monte to reinstate the workers. But Del Monte has ignored the Labor Minister, who has virtually no authority to enforce Guatemalan labor law.

After Del Monte rebuffed attempts by the Labor Minister to mediate a resolution, SITRABI held a general assembly in early October and the members of Del Monte's other plantations decided to simultaneously take advantage of a provision in their contract that allows each member to take 10 days of unpaid absences. The legal walk out was set for October 14.

Resignations at Gunpoint

The night before, however, 200 men armed with high caliber and assault weapons surrounded the union hall and forced the two executive committee members present to drive to the house of the General Secretary of SITRABI, Marel Martinez, who was dragged out of his house and reportedly beaten in front of his family. Another union leader was forced at gunpoint to call the remaining executive committee members to request their presence at the union hall. Five executive committee members and over 20 union members were then held hostage for over eight harrowing hours.

The armed intimidators told the union leaders that Del Monte would leave Guatemala if the walk-out was allowed to proceed. A man representing himself as the president of the local chamber of commerce said that this would result in Morales becoming a ghost town and this could not happen. Another leader stated that the only way to correct the problem was to kill all of the union leaders. Union leader Jorge Palma said later, "I thought only death awaited us."

The SITRABI union leaders were then forced at gunpoint to sign papers of resignation, first from the union, and a little while later after the armed men received a mysterious fax, from the company itself, as well as to make a radio announcement calling off the walkout. Before the armed men left they told the union leaders to disappear from Morales or expect to be murdered. The executive committee members and their families then fled to Guatemala City where they received protection from the UN agency observing the peace process in Guatemala, MINUGUA, until the Guatemalan government found modest security for them.

U.S. and U.N. React Strongly

Both the U.S. government and the U.N. have responded strongly to the violent intimidation of the union leadership.

MINUGUA has described the incident as one of the most serious violations of human rights in post-war Guatemala and in a highly unusual move, held a press conference to pressure the government to investigate and arrest those responsible. MINUGUA recognizes that if the assault is allowed to stand, it will send a loud message to workers (and employers) across Guatemala that impunity continues to trump respect for worker rights even in post-war Guatemala, further threatening the peace process.

The U.S. government has also sent a strong, clear message to the Guatemalan government and business community that a failure to investigate, arrest and prosecute the perpetrators of the violent intimidation will affect U.S. trade benefits provided to Guatemala under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP). At the end of November, the U.S. ambassador to Guatemala, Prudence Bushnell, met with outgoing President Alvaro Arzu on the Sitrabi case.

Despite this pressure, the Guatemalan authorities have moved extremely slowly. National Police investigators did not meet with Sitrabi leaders to obtain their formal statements until November 4 and then took two weeks to issue arrest warrants for just 9 of the 43 men who were recognized and named by the union leaders. Then, at the end of November, a local judge dismissed charges against two of them, and reduced the charges against the remaining seven to simple coercion, granting them light bail. As of early December, no one had been put behind bars for this blatant and violent intimidation of union leaders. Meanwhile, a judge has mysteriously ruled that a civil case against the 900 firings must be brought as individual cases rather than as a collective group. At the same time, a trumped-up law suit has been filed against the five SITRABI leaders alleging corruption.

Del Monte's Role and Defense

It is difficult to ascertain the degree to which local Del Monte personnel may have been involved in the violent intimidation. Local experts say that in a small company town like Morales, it would have been highly unlikely for the local company representatives to not at least have known what was happening. SITRABI workers say that a Del Monte engineer was seen talking to a member of the local chamber of commerce two hours before the armed men showed up at union headquarters, and have demanded his resignation. Even more problematic for Del Monte is that the chief of BANDEGUA security (who is still working for Del Monte) has been named as having been a part of the 200 armed men, according to sworn testimony. Finally, BANDEGUA somehow had in hand the coerced resignations and accepted them until international protests forced the company to backtrack.

In response to international pressure, Fresh Del Monte took out a newspaper ad in late October denouncing the violence and disclaiming any responsibility, adding that it does not intend to pull out of Guatemala..

But in written communication to the union, Del Monte is threatening to leave Guatemala if a new contract for Del Monte's remaining plantations does not roll back workers' previous gains. And on December 2, Del Monte rejected the union's November 18 proposal to accept so-called independent producers on the condition that wages, benefits and SITRABI union representation be maintained. BANDEGUA said that the union would have to take up its concerns directly with the new producers, essentially trying to wash its hands of the matter.

Despite the fact that some of its workers have had to flee their homes for their lives, Del Monte has taken a harsh line against the leaders and their families, going so far as to refuse permission to the families of the leaders-in-hiding access to the company's hospital in Guatemala City. The company has yet to express any concern about the fate or future of these workers who have been forced to abandon their homes at gunpoint. It is abundantly clear that Del Monte wants to get rid of the SITRABI union leadership.

In a separate but related incident, an international observer from Witness for Peace was forced off one of Del Monte's plantations on November 22 by three armed security guards and the administrator of the plantation, who said that BANDEGUA didn't want any foreigners around.

NOTE: Although they share the same logo, Fresh Del Monte Produce is a company separate from Del Monte Foods. Fresh Del Monte, our target, produces and markets fresh fruits and vegetables, of which bananas is their biggest seller. Del Monte Foods is the company that produces canned fruits and vegetables.