News

“What Difference Does a Union Make? Banana Plantations in the North and South of Guatemala.”

“What Difference Does a Union Make? Banana Plantations in the North and South of Guatemala.”

January 7, 2021

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa - Join a virtual discussion of the new Center for Global Workers' Rights (CGWR) and Solidarity Center report, “What Difference Does a Union Make? Banana Plantations in the North and South of Guatemala,” on January 27 at 10:00 a.m. EST.

Zoom Link: https://solidaritycenter.zoom.us/j/93266132373

Guatemala is the world’s third-largest exporting country of bananas and the largest exporter of bananas to the United States. Yet according to What Difference Does a Union Make? non-unionized workers at nationally-owned enterprises are paid less than half the hourly wages and work more hours than unionized workers at multi-national corporations.

Non-union workers also are far more likely to face verbal abuse than union workers, while a majority of women in non-union banana packing plants face sexual harassment and other forms of gender-based violence at work compared with women working at unionized packing plants.

All these worker rights violations take place at enterprises inspected by private certification programs, including Global G.A.P. and Rain Forest Alliance.

Report author Dr. Mark Anner will discuss the findings of the report in conversation with union activists who also will discuss how they are addressing safety issues for workers during COVID-19. Anner is director of the Center for Global Workers’ Rights and professor of labor and employment relations at Pennsylvania State University. The report is co-published by the Solidarity Center and the Center for Global Workers' Rights.

Anner will be joined by Irís Munguía, the first woman coordinator of COLSIBA, the Latin American coordinating body of agricultural unions, and a leader in empowering women in the banana, pineapple, and sugar cane industries to take on important roles in their unions and their communities.

A representative of SITRABI, the banana workers’ union in Guatemala, Solidarity Center Executive Director Shawna Bader-Blau and Solidarity Center Trade Union Strengthening Director Joell Molina also will join the conversation.

January 11, 2021

 

“What Difference Does a Union Make? Banana Plantations in the North and South of Guatemala.”