Union Freedom

The freedom to freely organize unions and to colletively negotiate the working conditions is a right that the transnational companies and the independent businesses grossly violate in the banana plantation areas. The businesses take advantage of the same laws that allow them to fire workers freely and thus violate the right to a stable and decent job. In the past two decades, the government has restricted investigations into how the companies repress the unions and the workers who want to unionize. Rather, the government tolerates this situation by backing Solidarismo, a well-known pro-employer organization that is ideologically controlled by the companies themselves and does not defend the workers’ interests in an independent manner. Since it is not independent from the company, this movement is not internationally recognized.

Many thousands of domestic and migrant workers roam the banana plantation areas in search of work, but find none because of the companies’ black lists which discriminate against workers with union pasts or with histories of calling for improvement in working conditions. This situation is clearly a violation of human rights since workers’ rights are an integral part of these rights. This situation creates a disgraceful blemish on a country that is internationally recognized in the area of human rights. Working for the dignity of human rights in the banana plantations, the recuperation of the rights that have recently been lost, and the capturing of other rights, is the reason for the work of the union organizations and the solidarity groups which make up the network of Foro Emaús.