Fair Trade USA decertified producer Suragroh, a subsidiary of Fyffes, after the publication of an open letter describing a pattern labor rights violations in melon plantations in Honduras.
The Irish company Fyffes is one of the largest fruit brands in the world and the largest importer of winter season melons for the United States market. Fyffes is owned by the Japanese conglomerate Sumitomo.
The Honduran agricultural unions, the Fair World Project, and the International Labor Rights Forum called on Fyffes to negotiate with the STAS, the Union of Agricultural Industry Workers. The STAS is an independent union that represents more than 800 agricultural workers in the melon, banana, sugarcane, and palm oil industries.
"During the last three weeks, I have met with the Fyffes melon producers in Honduras," said Gabby Rosazza, of the International Labor Rights Forum. "They told me about the high production quotas and the verbal harassment they face because they are part of the STAS union. They told me that management does not provide them with gloves and refuses to let them wear the gloves they bring from home. As a result, they have cuts and injuries to their hands."
Fyffes' refusal to respect the internationally recognized worker's right to join a democratically elected union is a violation of both Honduran law and international labor agreements.
Due to labor rights violations and the pattern of anti-union violence, Suragroh-Fyffes has been included in the AFL-CIO complaint under the US-Central America Free Trade Agreement, and in a complaint made to the International Labor Organization.
Fyffes was suspended from the Ethical Trading Initiative in May 2017 for violations in its supply chain in Honduras.
"We will ask supermarkets in the United States to suspend commercial relations with Fyffes, as some supermarkets in Europe have done, until the administration negotiates a contract in good faith with STAS," said Dana Geffner, Executive Project Director for the Fair World Project.
Source: criterio.hn
