Date: Mon, 04 Dec 95 15:07:32 gmt
From: "Shoman, Kiren" <shoman-AT-sageltd.co.uk>
Subject: Belize - brutalization of migrant and Belizean rights


 Please don't ignore this message; action is the only way people will feel 
 your presence. This is coming to you from Kiren.
 
 
 BANANALAND:
 HOW MIGRANT WORKERS ARE BRUTALIZED AND TERRORIZED IN BELIZE 
 (FORMERLY THE BRITISH COLONY OF BRITISH HONDURAS) BY THE BRITISH-
 BASED COMPANY, FYFFES, AND OTHERS.
 
 
 As a Honduran worker surveyed the 
 settlement's tar paper and thatch houses, he 
 commented angrily: "Look at how the people 
 live here in their little shacks. Here we 
 have no water, no light, no doctor. God 
 himself has left this place. And every year 
 we work more and more to earn less and less. 
 Somos seres humanos o somos esclavos?" (Are 
 we human beings or are we slaves?)
 Mark Moberg (U. of South Alabama, USA): Out 
 of Work in the Fields of Gold. (1993)
 
 
 
 The banana industry was revitalized in Belize in the 1970s by a 
 government concerned to provide a labour-intensive industry for 
 the depressed south. At first established with a tenant-farmer 
 arrangement supervised by a statutory board, government poured 
 millions into infrastructure and in securing favourable marketing 
 arrangements. The industry was privatized in 1985, and today  
 nine owners, several of them foreign, control more than 90% of 
 production. More than 90% of the field and packing shed workers 
 employed are Central American immigrants, and the owners have 
 succeeded in destroying any attempt by the workers to organize.
 
 It was not always like this. The first collective agreement 
 between owners and a Union occurred in 1975, when 90% of workers 
 were Belizeans. A more militant Union entered the picture in 
 1980, and negotiated agreements up to 1984. By that time, the 
 union movement in Belize had been decimated by the machinations 
 of employers as well as by a government bending to pressures from 
 the USA after independence in 1981. 
 
 The most severe and long-lasting blow to unionization in the 
 banana industry, however, was inflicted by the international-
 ization of the labour force. As the 1980s rolled on, thousands of 
 refugees from war-torn Central American countries poured into 
 Belize, and suddenly where there had been a shortage of labour 
 there was an abundance. Banana farm owners, with government's 
 cooperation, brought additional cheap immigrant labour from 
 Honduras, and they began laying off local workers. In 1985, in a 
 poll engineered by management, the Union lost its 
 representational rights. After privatization, a farm manager 
 echoed the sentiments of all owners when he told workers: "You 
 even say the word 'U' and you're fired."
  
 
 
 Today, the industry openly and structurally depends on 
 immigrant labour with some of the lowest average wages in 
 CARICOM. Although the workers may earn in money term twice 
 as much as they would in Honduras, their real wages end up 
 as bad or worse, given the much higher cost of living and 
 the refusal of most owners to provide housing and other 
 amenities. Belize lobbies for preferences in European 
 markets on the basis that it treats workers better than do 
 the "dollar banana" countries. The facts, however, show that 
 this is a big lie.
 
 Workers are held hostage to their immigrant status by the 
 owners. The vast majority are given legal status only by the 
 "work permits" issued by the Immigration authorities to the 
 employers, who often keep them in their possession, along 
 with the passports and other documents of the workers. If 
 the employer informs Immigration that he has been fired, the 
 worker becomes subject to deportation. The workers seem able 
 to orchestrate sweeps by the Immigration authorities, as 
 well as the repressive apparatus of the State.
 
 Thus it was that when in May 1995 the immigrant workers 
 organized themselves for the first time in a union 
 (registered as the United Banners Banana Workers Union, or 
 "Banderas Unidas") and tried to dialogue with owners, the 
 latter rebuffed them. The Union staged a strike in June, and 
 the military and police swept into the area, systematically 
 brutalized and terrorized the workers, and carried busloads 
 of them to the Guatemalan border for deportation. The 
 Guatemalans refused to accept the majority, who were 
 Hondurans, and they were returned to the banana belt, 
 suitably cowed by their harrowing experience, which included 
 beatings.
 
 Beaten back but not beaten down, the Union, under the 
 presidency of a remarkable Belizean woman, Marciana Funez, 
 continued to quietly build its strength and attract allies. 
 The Catholic Bishop of Belize denounced the "blatant 
 disregard for human rights". The Jesuit Superior celebrated 
 a Mass of solidarity with the workers, and Sisters of 
 Charity resident in the area have been very supportive. The 
 National trade Union congress of Belize, SPEAR, the 
 Association of National Development Agencies and others have 
 expressed their support for "Banderas Unidas". 
 
 So far, however, these forces of reason have been no match 
 for the economic power of the Banana Growers Association 
 (BGA -- they call themselves "growers", but are the owners 
 of the farms) supported by the repressive forces of the 
 State, and the abuses continue.
 
 These abuses include the open violation of the legal right 
 of workers to participate in a trade union as well as 
 systematic violations of labour laws, with the connivance of 
 the Labour Department of government.
 
 
 Workers are deprived of wages due them by illegal deductions 
 (many workers get a pay packet at the end of two weeks' work 
 marked "0.00" after deductions), falsified time-keeping and 
 piece rates that in practice fall far short of the legal 
 minimum wage of US$1.00 per hour. They are forced to work 
 overtime and on Sundays, sometimes without any remuneration 
 or overtime pay. They are fired after many years of service 
 without any severance pay.
 
 Packing shed workers, the majority of them women, are 
 required to report to work at a certain time but are not 
 paid for time spent waiting for fruit to arrive. In many 
 sheds, they spend hours standing with their feet immersed in 
 water, and without protection against chemicals used. They 
 are arbitrarily paid less than is their due for no apparent 
 reason. And if they complain of any of these abuses they are 
 summarily fired. They are subject to blatant sexual 
 harassment, and when an agency took this up with the all-
 male BGA, they compounded their down-playing of this with 
 sexist jokes.
 
 The labour laws call for some minimum health, safety and 
 housing requirements which are flagrantly flouted by the 
 owners. The worst abuses of these as of the other laws occur 
 on farms managed by the Fyffes group, which also markets all 
 of Belize's bananas. Residents on those farms are housed in 
 tiny shacks or barracks in the middle of the banana fields, 
 without any sanitary facilities or drinking water. Indeed, 
 those who attempt to build pit latrines are prevented and 
 threatened. A worker who tries to get drinking water from an 
 irrigation line was beaten by Fyffes' "security" guards. 
 They are forced to do their toilet in the fields, further 
 polluting the shallow wells they use for drinking water. 
 These wells, as well as the people themselves, are already 
 contaminated by the aerial spraying of poisonous chemicals. 
 Children are especially vulnerable, and indeed child labour 
 (under 14) is practiced in several farms.
 
 What workers complain of most, however, is that they are 
 really treated worse than animals. At least there are laws 
 in Belize that protect wildlife; none are enforced to 
 protect immigrant workers. They are treated with contempt 
 and total disrespect, and this is compounded, in the case of 
 the Fyffes-managed farms, by the often brutal behaviour of 
 its "security guards", who spell great insecurity and danger 
 for the workers. Headed by an ex-British Army person, this 
 force terrorizes and abuses workers and other residents in 
 the area to such an extent that parents invoke the 
 Britisher's name to put their recalcitrant children under 
 manners.
 
 Despite repeated rebuffs, the Union has been trying to 
 dialogue with owners for months and forestall a 
 confrontation. In November 1995 there seemed to be a 
 willingness on the part of the owners to negotiate, but it 
 turned out to be a trick to gain time and bring down the 
 guard of the Union so that they could unleash the dogs of 
 war on them. On the day that the BGA was to respond to a 
 proposal for dialogue, the "Serious Crimes Squad" (known as 
 the Dragon unit) of the national police arrested all the 
 executive members of the Union and held them for some time, 
 subjecting them to harassment concerning their immigration 
 status, although all of them are naturalized Belizeans. 
 Those committing the serious crimes are the owners, but they 
 seem to be able to direct the Dragons against the workers at 
 will.
 
 The banana farm owners, and in particular the Fyffes 
 company, are benefitting from preferential treatment in the 
 European markets, but they are benefitting even more from 
 the heartless exploitation of immigrant workers, treating 
 them little better than slaves. 
 
 The United Banners Banana Workers Union appeals to the 
 international community, in the first instance, to write to 
 the government of Belize, to the BGA, to the British 
 parliament and government, to Fyffes's offices in Belize, in 
 Florida and in the UK, to the European Union, to the media 
 and to any other relevant body to protest this inhumane 
 treatment and to call for respect for the human and legal 
 rights of workers. Should your pleas fall on deaf ears, we 
 will be getting in touch with you again requesting further 
 measures --including, if necessary, a boycott. Please send 
 copies of all letters to SPEAR.
 
 
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
 ^^^^^ 
 
 
 
 Addresses in Belize:
 
 Banana Growers Association        Fyffes Bananas 
 International
 Independence, Belize.             Independence, Belize.  
 Fax: 501-6-22112                  Fax: 501-6-22262
 
 Hon. Manuel Esquivel              Hon. Dean Barrow
 Prime Minister of Belize          Deputy Prime Minister and 
 Belmopan, Belize                  Minister of Foreign 
 Affairs     Fax: 501-8-23323                  and National 
 Security
                                   Belmopan, Belize
                                   Fax: 501-8-22854


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