Chiquita fires thousands of striking banana workers in Panama, says it suffered $75 million losses

a year ago by HellsBelle to c/world

Banana giant Chiquita Brands has fired its workers in Panama who have been out on strike for more than three weeks as part of nationwide protests against reforms to the social security system.

Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino had said earlier Thursday that the strike was illegal and included some 5,000 workers.

“Unfortunately, following the unjustified abandonment of work at our plantations and operations centers since April 28 and continuing today, (the company) has proceeded with the termination of all of our daily workers,” the company said in a statement. It said the company had suffered losses of at least $75 million.

Protests marches and occasional roadblocks have stretched from one end of the country to the other as teachers, construction workers and other unions expressed their rejection to changes the government said were necessary to keep the social security system solvent.

NotAGamer 122 points a year ago

This is union busting and is exactly what unions are meant to fight.

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kami 89 points a year ago

No more Chiquitas for me then 😎👍

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something_random_tho 59 points a year ago path: 0 17223616 17227824, hotness: undefined, score: 59, children: 0
kittenzrulz123 18 points a year ago

You should already be boycotting them, for more information look up Chiquita terrorism

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kittenzrulz123 49 points a year ago

Fuck Chiquita and never let people forget that they're just a rebranded United Fruit Company

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ICastFist 48 points a year ago

Here's to hoping they burn down the plantations for good measure. Fuck Chiquita

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supersquirrel 38 points a year ago

“We don’t know how to talk to (union) leader Francisco Smith about the enormous damage his intransigence is causing the Bocas del Toro job sector,” Mulino said. Bocas del Toro is Panama’s westernmost province and borders Costa Rica.

Not to pick tooo much on CEOs (they are so hardworking after all, I am inspired every time I think about all the labor they have stolen from me!), but it sounds like a CEO skill issue here.

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officermike 20 points a year ago

Not a CEO, he's the president of Panama.

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supersquirrel 27 points a year ago

Sorry, had my Dole goggles on, all I could see was money and I became disoriented for a second.

Why do I feel like every time when I put these Dole goggles on, when I take them off I am always digging shallow graves for piles of bodies for some reason?

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nkat2112 13 points a year ago

Dear fellow Netizen, astute observer of events, and elegant writer, might this "digging"/"piles of bodies" you're referring to have anything to do with what effectively amount to war crimes committed by Chiquita leadership against people via murderous paramilitary death squads some while back?

https://www.npr.org/...

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supersquirrel 7 points a year ago

Oh that is horrible and totally against my values!

puts Dole goggles on again in apparent contradiction to the last words out of my mouth

What is it about people in Central America and their culture that makes them so unwilling to work hard like the rest of us? I think we need to impress upon them a more 'Murican work ethic for their own good. Look at how much of a mess their country is and they all want to come here anyways because they are jealous of the kind of society hardworking white christians made.

takes off Dole goggles again

It is just too bad tragedies happen all over the world sigh

/s

...in case the anger at my own country, the US, for causing so much harm to Panama, Guatemala and other countries in the region didn't come through properly.

For more context check out the Behind The Bastards episode series "How the U.S.A. Murdered Panama"

https://www.iheart.com/...

Also did I mix up my countries crimes against Hawaiians vs Central Americans with the Dole reference? There are just too many to keep straight oh dear

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meeeeetch 15 points a year ago

In a banana republic, what's a president but a local representative of the company?

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CobraChicken3000 35 points a year ago

I buy bananas all the time. Bananas are dirt cheap and I imagine they are dirt cheap because the labor costs are so low. I feel like I will be financially okay if I had to pay an extra dollar for a bundle of bananas.

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Bravo 22 points a year ago
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Jimmycakes 2 points a year ago

That shit has proven to be a scam in coffee the farmers are slightly better off but not really and I'm over here getting bent over for 12oz coffee bags that all used to be 16oz before. The middleman still getting theirs in the fair trade game.

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Bravo 2 points a year ago
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Jimmycakes 3 points a year ago

Here is a well researched article from Stanford, they do also mention banana lol https://ssir.org/...

When I say scam I mean on us the consumer. Paying more getting worse.

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Zenith 1 point a year ago

The main issue with fair trade maybe not being especially fair is you have to buy into the system, those who can’t afford to join are often the farms that need the most help because they’re the poorest. So it’s a system that makes sure the poorest farms are excluded which is obviously problematic. The program it’s self can be beneficial but the price that fair trade kicks in it is too low for a lot of farms to survive, which again benefits the richest farms that were not excluded by the buy in. It could be a much fairer system but it’s not “a scam”

I don’t want to link articles to facts like fair trade being buy in or the rates fair trade pays but it’s all available information

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ShinkanTrain 27 points a year ago

I wish the 5000 workers a very successful taking over of all their shit

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avidamoeba 25 points a year ago

Did they try calling the CIA? Or maybe this is the call.

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Blackout 24 points a year ago

What do 5,000 people do when they no longer have a job and are going hungry? It's time for a riot

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LandedGentry 19 points a year ago
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Jimmycakes 7 points a year ago

Well yeah that's where they got the plants(bananas)

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pennomi 6 points a year ago
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LandedGentry -3 points a year ago
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Wilco 13 points a year ago

Banana Republic II, Electric Boogaloo, coming to a country near you

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aramis87 8 points a year ago

Oh, no - not my rich people's yacht money!

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sidtirouluca 7 points a year ago

banana war

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mlg 7 points a year ago

insert beaten to death banana republic joke here

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Bravo 5 points a year ago
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Gates9 4 points a year ago

I wonder how this will effect the invasion?

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