Banana giant Chiquita Brands has fired its workers in Panama who have been out on strike for more than three weeks as part of nationwide protests against reforms to the social security system.

Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino had said earlier Thursday that the strike was illegal and included some 5,000 workers.

“Unfortunately, following the unjustified abandonment of work at our plantations and operations centers since April 28 and continuing today, (the company) has proceeded with the termination of all of our daily workers,” the company said in a statement. It said the company had suffered losses of at least $75 million.

Protests marches and occasional roadblocks have stretched from one end of the country to the other as teachers, construction workers and other unions expressed their rejection to changes the government said were necessary to keep the social security system solvent.

  • Zenith@lemm.eeEnglish
    21·
    9 hours ago

    The main issue with fair trade maybe not being especially fair is you have to buy into the system, those who can’t afford to join are often the farms that need the most help because they’re the poorest. So it’s a system that makes sure the poorest farms are excluded which is obviously problematic. The program it’s self can be beneficial but the price that fair trade kicks in it is too low for a lot of farms to survive, which again benefits the richest farms that were not excluded by the buy in. It could be a much fairer system but it’s not “a scam”

    I don’t want to link articles to facts like fair trade being buy in or the rates fair trade pays but it’s all available information