Choluteca, October 26, 2022 – Honduran farmworkers on marched on the melon fields in Choluteca demanding that multinational fruit giant Fyffes engage with them in good faith after the company walked away from negotiations with their union and stopped hiring union members, making it impossible for them to feed their families. 

The workers, members of El Sindicato de Trabajadores de la Agroindustria y Similares (STAS), called out Fyffes for turning their back on workers and negotiations, demanded an end to discrimination in hiring and called for intervention from the Honduran government to enforce the law and protect their rights. 

Factory owners say a dollar an hour is too much to pay the people who make our clothes

“Worker voice” is the current buzzword among corporate social responsibility professionals seeking to end labor exploitation in the seafood industry, yet the original meaning of worker voice – in which workers form associations to collectively bargain for better conditions on an equal footing with employers – is nowhere to be found.

This week, as millions of American kids prepare their costumes for the biggest chocolate consumption holiday of the year – Halloween – most are unaware of the 2 million children laboring in West African cocoa fields.  Likely none share industry experts’ worries about the sustainability of cocoa supplies in the world.  Yet cocoa, which has the lofty Latin name, Theo Broma (fruit of the gods), has proven to be one of the most difficult development conundrums for those who advocate for international trade as a path to prosperity for developing nations.