URRACO, Yoro.- Demanding the reinstatement of three coworkers, respect for the Collective Bargaining Agreement, and an end to the persecution of its president, the Sindicato de Trabajadores de la Empresa Americana de Exportación y Ameribi (SITRAAMERIBI), stopped working yesterday, for an indefinite period, at the Birichichi banana plantation.
The 176 unionized workers, carrying posters and clubs, are outside the main entrance of the farm, which is a subsidiary of the Tela Railroad Company. They aim to prevent company executives and 80 contract workers from entering.
Gustavo Fajardo Castro, president of the organization, founded in December 1980, indicated that they took this measure because they are about to start negotiating a new Collective Bargaining Agreement, but the company lawyer, César Castro Díaz, has made it clear that he can not participate in the talks.
Furthermore, he complains that last December 17, he was suspended for eight days. When he finished the term of punishment, he went back to work, but the next day he was told “Happy New Year” in a mocking tone and given an envelope saying he was again not allowed to work for an equal amount of time.
He said that they would not end the action as long as the company continues to violate Clause 53 of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, which says that temporary workers who do permanent work must be taken on as permanent employees.
He also wants the company to recognize the 4 days’ pay established in a point called “domestic disaster” because due to “Gamma” nobody worked because the water rose up to their chests.
Also “they must stop persecuting me and say where they came up with those 16 days’ work they took from me.”
He also denounced that there is a doctor who is playing with the health of the workers, because she does not care for them as they deserve. Part of the demand consists in the reinstatement of Tomás Avila, José Luis Flores and Estanislao Pérez, because he believes that they were fired without just cause.
The unionists also demand the dismissal of supervisor Daniel Alvarez, because he treats the workers badly.
1,200 DISMISSED
Meanwhile, the president of the Coordinadora de Sindicatos Bananeros de Honduras (COSIBAH), German Zepeda, said that this problem is part of an increase in antiunion tactics that started 15 days ago when “Tela” closed two farms belonging to Agropecuaria Surco de Agua Blanca Sur, leaving 435 people unemployed.
Furthermore, a week ago, 400 SITRATERCO affilates were fired when the Tibombo de La Lima, Cortés, farm was closed. In total, approximately 1,200 workers have lost their jobs, because there have also been dismissed worwkers at Laureles, Ceibita, Limón, Indiana and Omonita.
Zepeda believes that the companies are taking these measures as a result of the tariff reforms that the European Union has made with regard to banana exports, and that in order to address the falling prices, they reduce costs and salaries, in order not to affect production, and thus they violate the Collective Bargaining Agreements and destroy the few unions that remain in the country. LA TRIBUNA wanted to hear the perspective of company manager Arturo López Miranda, who is Guatemalan, or some other executive, but the security personnel at their offices said they were not available.