Showing posts with label Dole. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dole. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Back on Valentine's day, I wrote a post regarding a story coming from Columbia about workers who were payed less than $50 a week, for a full grueling six day work week, working for a subsidiary of Dole (Not the Viagra popping one).
It really got me to thinking. What "free trade" often means is American companies setting up shop in countries like Columbia who are signatories of NAFTA and CAFTA, so they can exploit the workers through wages, working conditions, benefits, and safety. They pollute under laxer environmental regulations. Then they ship the goods to the US as a product of Columbia, with reduced or eliminated tarriffs.
How about a simple little rule change. The ownership of the company sending the items over under trade agreements has to be citizens of that nation. At least 50.1% of the company must be owned by Columbian citizens in this case. This will not eliminate the exploitation of workers, but at least more of the money will stay in the country, to trickle down on the serfs.
Of course business groups and Republicans will vehemently protest this action. Bush would definately veto such legislation, but it is the perfect politics of contrast and compare. Most Americans aren't xenophobes, but the working class are getting the shaft in this new global economy. What better way to show what "free trade" really represents, than to put in a benchmark to prove it's not about expanding the economies of other countries, and allowing them to compete in our market place. Dole is not a Columbian concern the last I checked. We need to do more checking. At least make the free traders pay a political price for what they are managing to do.
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Right on the heels of the Peter Pan peanut butter recall, now comes word that Dole is recalling six thousand cartons of canteloupe from Costa Rica after testing revealed salmonella in this batch of fruit. Earlier this week, I linked to a story about a Dole subsidiary in Colombia that produces roses for Valentines Day, that exploits their workers, and pays them $50 for a grueling six day a week job.
These are the fruits of NAFTA, and CAFTA (pun intented). Back in November, President Bush inked a massive free trade agreement with Columbia that was our biggest free trade deal since NAFTA.
Congress has voiced objections to the trade pact with Colombia as it fails to protect internationally agreed worker rights such as the abolition of child labour, protection against discrimination and freedom to join a union.
Costa Rica, where the tainted canteloupes were grown, of course is
a part of the CAFTA agreement. So, what we have are companies like Dole, going down to Central America and Mexico and buying up plots of land and paying workers way below poverty wages, selling the products at the same price to American consumers, while environmental standards and food safety standards become more lax since we can't discriminate against "Central-American" products. This of course is a joke, since Dole is actually an American company. Small american farmers, and small farmers in these countries are not able to compete with the large conglomerates so they go under, Dole's profits rise, and our food safety is put at risk.
Does this still surprise anybody other than Thomas Friedman?
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Roses are a symbol of romance to many people, but not to Beatriz Fuentes.
Like many of the roughly 90,000 workers on giant South American flower plantations, Fuentes helps pick most of the roses that will be delivered to Americans this Valentine's Day.
But she says she is paid less than $50 for a six-day week of demanding labor, often under difficult -- some say illegal -- conditions, including contact with dangerous chemicals.
Fuentes picks flowers for an American subsidiary of Dole, the banana and pineapple outfit. She also states that she is forced to take pregnancy tests as a condition of working there. Dole says they are just doing their damned best, and everything is peachy. I am sure United Fruit said the same thing too. So, enjoy those roses folks. Just like the blood diamonds they are awful purty.
Seriously, buying a hallmark card and roses is about the least romantic option available. Tell your signifigant other something genuinely from the heart. Speaking of which, I want to take this time to tell my wife that she is the best thing that ever happened to me, and she completes and fills all the empty holes in my life, and I definately married up. But baby, sorry... no roses.
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