18,000 labourers of 288 banana plantations from Urabá, Colombia, are ready to go on strike after no agreement for a new collective agreement was reached with the region's entrepreneurs.
The direct settlement stage finished on 30 April, after which an extension was approved; this extension concluded yesterday without any results, which is why the National Union of Agricultural Industry Workers (Sintrainagro) warned about imminent strike actions from Antioquia's second largest exporting sector.
"We prefer not to strike, because entrepreneurs, labourers and the Urabá region will be affected by it, as the region's economy depends on bananas. That is why we are ready to continue negotiating while strike actions are being prepared," explained Guillermo Rivera Zapata, president of Sintrainagro.
If all activities are suspended, daily 234,000 boxes of bananas valued at 4,477 million pesos would cease to be exported.
For their part, entrepreneurs consider that the labourers' requests do not correspond with the reality of the sector, currently affected by a strong revaluation of the peso against the US dollar. Additionally, according to Augura (the banana growers union), the sector's productivity between 2008 and 2012 fell by 18.5%, closing last year with 90.6 million boxes exported.
Source: Elcolombiano.com
