As well as being forced to endure appalling working conditions, plantation workers are also paid pittance wages. When the workers try to organise into trade unions their efforts are often met with violent suppression. In Colombia trade union leaders have been targeted and killed as a lesson to others who may seek to organise. As a result of the increasing production and declining prices other independent producers are getting very low prices for their bananas. The result is that many poor farmers are losing money, and as a result are gradually losing their livelihoods.
Bananas mean everything in the rural areas.
A fair price might mean that, for the first time, farmers could look forward to getting further education for their children. When you buy a cheap banana you are unwittingly participating in the exploitation of labour. The Fairtrade bananas available in Britain come from Fairtrade registered suppliers in Costa Rica, Ghana, Ecuador, the Dominican Republic, and the Windward Islands. They come from estates where worker safety is a high priority, and family farms which are struggling with low prices and competition from plantations. Costa Rica Coopetrabasur is a co-operative in Costa Rica, set up by former Chiquita workers when the multinational pulled out 20 years ago.