Beautiful Flowers, Ugly Working Conditions

[Omaha Steve]

http://labornotes.org/index.shtml

Beautiful Flowers, Ugly Working Conditions

Miami-based Dole Fresh Flowers, a subsidiary of Dole Food Company, is stalling negotiations with its workers. The Miami Flower Worker Committee is asking unions and organizations to support its campaign to force Dole to negotiate in good faith with its Colombian flower workers.

There are more than 125,000 Colombian flower workers. The majority of them are single mothers who earn less than $6 per day. Their average work week is about 60 hours. Many women are forced to take pregnancy tests to get hired and if they do get pregnant while employed, they are often fired or don’t have their contracts renewed.

Dole Fresh Flowers is one of the biggest producers of ornamental flowers in the world. It controls over 20 percent of the Colombian flower industry.

Dole claims to adhere to high social and environmental standards, but when workers at a Dole-owned plantation formed an independent union in 2004, Dole tried to destroy the union.

Support the Miami Flower Workers Committee and turn up the heat on Dole to negotiate with its workers. Individuals, unions, and organizations who are interested in being official supporters of the campaign should contact Carolina Delgado of South Florida Jobs with Justice at 305/324-1107. You can also contact Charity Ryerson with the U.S. Labor Education in the Americas Project at 773/262-6502.

[Kajsa]

1. Kick!

Let's not even start with what Dole did
to gain a foothold in Hawaii!

:puke:

:kick:

[MountainLaurel]

2. Wasn't Dole also involved

In the deadly American policies in Latin America as well? There's a reason they call them banana republics, after all.