The history of the Del Monte corporation in Guatemala
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- Judge issues order to evict Guatemalan
banana workers; violent confrontation feared
- U.S./GLEP alert, 1 May 1998. Judge Edgar Rivera Gonzalez
issued orders to evict workers at two Guatemalan banana
plantations that have been at the center of a
two-month-long conflict between union organizers and a
manager for Del Monte Fresh Produce's Guatemalan
subsidiary, Bandegua.
- Guatemala Banana Worker Conflict
Update
- U.S./Guatemala Labor Education Project, 29 June
1998. After initially stating that the conflicts involving
the Mopa and Panorama plantations were not a Del Monte
problem but a third party dispute, DelMonte Fresh Produce
has intervened to resolve the conflict between workers on
these two plantations and the Guatemalan businessman who
leases both plantations from Del Monte.
- Banana Bosses Reject Compromise
Proposal
- Weekly News Update on the Americas, 19 July
1998. A proposed agreement for resolving ongoing disputes
between banana workers and their employers has been
rejected by plantation bosses. The lawyer for BANDEGUA,
the Guatemalan subsidiary of Del Monte Fresh Produce, said
the only way to end the work stoppage is by evicting the
protesting workers from the farms.
- Anti-union bananas
- By Jacky Delorme, ICFTU Online..., 9 October
1999. Violations of the collective agreement, mass
dismissals, refusal to negotiate, blackmail by lock-out,
trade unionists mistreated by paramilitaries, false press
announcements, etc. Bandegua, a subsidiary of Del Monte,
bears a heavy responsibility. Terrorist raid and death
threats to the leaders of SITRABI (the banana trade
union). Del Monte in the dock. The United Nations demand
an enquiry.
- Del Monte linked to violence against
workers
- U.S./Labor Education in the Americas Project, Labor
Alerts, 28 December 1999. New reports link Florida-based
Fresh Del Monte Produce to violent intimidation of its
banana workers in Guatemala. According to sworn testimony,
the chief of security and the engineer for Del Monte's
Guatemalan subsidiary, Bandegua, were both part of a group
of 200 armed men who forced the resignation of Del Monte
union leaders at gunpoint in October.
- Del Monte Update: Negotiations
begin
- Labor Alerts, 28 February 2000. Del
Monte's subsidiary in Guatemala, Bandegua, has begun
to sit down to discuss a case which has now become an
international scandal. It responds to international and
U.S. government pressure and that of the new Labor
Minister, Juan Francisco Alfaro Mijangos.