Updates: Attacks On Banana Workers,
Plus "Boot The Bell"
Labor Alerts: a service of Campaign for Labor Rights
Posted May 23, 2002
In this alert:
[Information in this Alert provided by US/LEAP (www.usleap.org
www.usleap.org/ ), Student-Farmworker
Alliance, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (www.ciw-online.org
www.ciw-online.org/ ), and the
Mexico Solidarity Network (www.mexicosolidarity.org
www.mexicosolidarity.org/
)]
Banana workers in Ecuador are still fighting violence in their efforts
to organize a union. New reports from Ecuador detail the culpability
of the Noboa Corporation on the attack on the Los Alamos workers --
Noboa Corporation representatives admitted to the Ecuadorian Labor Minister
that they hired the armed thugs!
We have also learned of an attack on another, non-Noboa plantation,
called Rio Culebras, which raises concerns of an industry-wide effort
to squelch union organizing in the industry.
Banana workers in Ecuador who have been organizing for their basic
rights and a decent wage faced violent attacks on two different occasions
on the night of May 15 and evening of May 16th by men who identified
themselves as hired by the Noboa Corporation. (for background information
on this campaign, and for photos of the aftermath of the attack, check
the US/Leap web site: www.usleap.org
www.usleap.org/ )
The first attack began at 2:00 a.m. on May 15, when approximately
400 hooded men violently attacked banana workers in their homes on the
Alamos plantations. Reports indicate a dozen or more workers were wounded,
one woman was raped, several other women were abused, and one man is
seriously injured due to gunshot which resulted in the amputation of
part of his leg.
The workers fought back and detained 40 of the attackers until six
policemen belatedly arrived around 8:00am. The police presence seemed
to slow the attackers but did little to protect the workers on the plantations
citing lack of authorization from their superiors (this despite numerous
requests for intervention by the union both before and during the attacks).
After a tense day, the armed attackers told the striking workers that
they would have to leave the plantation by 6:30 pm or they would be
forced to leave. The thugs then launched into a second attack on the
workers, in which more workers were shot, one in the stomach and one
in the head, though no fatalities were reported. A police officer was
also shot in the arm by the company-affiliated attackers. This second
attack succeeded in dislodging the workers from the plantation and reports
are that many are camped out on the highway outside the plantation.
Finally, 18 hours after the first assault, a special police force
finally arrived on the plantation at 8 pm. The policemen before had
been ineffectual during the second attack.
On the evening of May 17th, Noboa Corporation representatives met
with the Labor Minister of Ecuador and union representatives. There
are no reports of a settlement. The union has asked for additional negotiations.
Noboa has not denounced the attacks nor disclaimed responsibility
for them. Instead, the company has sought to rationalize the assault,
claiming that the workers have damaged $1 million in company property.
Witnesses on the plantations cannot report any property damage caused
by the workers. Regardless, vigilante attacks are not appropriate measures
to be taken against anyone allegedly destroying property.
Preliminary reports indicate that a third attack on banana workers
also fighting for a union on the Rio Culebras plantation, owned by a
Danish company, occurred the evening of Friday, the 17th. No injuries
were reported and it seems the workers were ready for such an attack
and were able to repel it, but details are scant at this point.
The attack on the second plantation raises concerns of an industry-wide
effort to squelch the recent organizing for respect for worker rights
on banana plantations in Ecuador.
Administration at the University of Chicago (UofC) promised to make
a decision by tomorrow -- Friday, May 22 - regarding the farmworker
and student lead "Boot the Bell" campaign. The administration must decide
whether or not they will take Taco Bell off the University of Chicago
campus, as requested by the overwhelming number of UofC students.
Students are now concerned that the administration is trying to avoid
making this important decision by delaying until the end of the school
year.
Write to the U of C administration to voice your support for removing
Taco Bell from campus in support of the farmworker boycott of the corporation.
Students have received hundreds of support letters from across the country
- thanks to those of you who wrote letters of support!
Now, students are asking you to write directly to their administrators
in support of their campaign. Their demands are:
- That the University of Chicago Administration and Aramark remove
and replace Taco Bell in Hutchinson Commons
- That no university workers lose any pay or work as a result of
the transition
- That the University Administration write a letter to Aramark explaining
their decision to remove Taco Bell from campus.
Below you will find the email addresses of the two administrative
officials with power over this decision, as well as some background
info on the campaign.
Write to:
- Jen Bird, Director or the Reynolds Club and Student Activities,
j-bird@uchicago.edu
- Cheryl Gutman, Director of the University Housing System, cgutman@midway.uchicago.edu
A national alliance of labor, student and faith-based organizations
recently coordinated the "Boot the Bell" campaign, a campaign aimed
at "booting" Taco Bell restaurants and products out of universities
and high schools nationwide. This campaign is currently focused on Aramark,
a food service provider that operates food services on hundreds of universities
around the country. Aramark has a contract with Taco Bell allowing for
Taco Bell to operate on many of these universities. We are requesting
that Aramark end its contract with Taco Bell so long as Taco Bell supports
sweatshop working conditions in the tomato fields of Florida.
Three weeks ago, the University of Chicago became the national focus
of this campaign. From the beginning, Aramark representatives and administration
at the UofC told students that they will take Taco Bell off of the UofC
campus if there is a demonstration of student support to take Taco Bell
off campus. In only two and a half weeks, students gathered over 45
pages of signatures on petitions, endorsements from 14 student organizations
and 36 community organizations, publications in local and school papers
and most recently, they coordinated an enormously successful public
event about the boycott.
The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), a farmworker organization
based in Immokalee, Florida, launched an international boycott of Taco
Bell in April 2001. The members of CIW pick tomatoes for Six-L's Packing
Co. -- one of Taco Bell's principle partners for the year-round supply
of tomatoes -- receive sub-poverty wages, stagnant piece rates, no right
to overtime pay, no health insurance, no sick leave, no holiday leave,
and no pension. Six-L's pays today what the industry paid as a standard
piece rate over 20 years ago-40 cents per 32-pounds of tomatoes.
Taco Bell has the power and responsibility to change this situation
for the workers who plant, cultivate, and harvest the tomatoes from
which they profit. If Taco Bell were to pay JUST ONE PENNY MORE per
pound for the tomatoes it buys from Florida growers, and the growers
were to pass that extra penny on to the workers, the rate paid to workers
could nearly double!
* return to
top
|
