Yellow perils

We expect our bananas to be beautiful and blemish free. But how does that

expectation affect the lives of banana workers? Ramon Isberto talks

to people on a Philippine plantation about their life and work.

   

It is a leisurely two-hour drive from the southern Philippines city of Davao to the 16 square kilometres of banana farms run by Dole Philippines, local subsidiary of the US food giant Castle and Cooke. The last 30 minutes of the ride grinds through dusty gravel roads that cut deep into a forest of banana trees planted on the fertile lowlands of Mindanao island.

Most of the 2,000 or so banana workers live right inside this human-made forest, either in clusters of small wooden homes or in crowded bunkhouses, surrounded by fruit trees (but thankfully no bananas).

Compared with the landless poor of Mindanao, the banana workers are not badly off. Their regular income allows some security. But the work is tough. Their lives are dominated by the back-breaking, hazardous task of cultivating and harvesting the bananas. It is, the workers say with much irony, like caring for an infant.

'The bananas here are better loved and cared for than



 the workers,' says Connie Actub, health-and-safety officer with the National Federation of Labour, a militant trade union that has, against huge odds, organized farm workers here. 'Every possible step is taken to keep the harvested fruits from suffering the slightest bruise,' she says. 'That is hardly how the workers are treated.'

To achieve the unblemished fruits demanded by the world market, workers must constantly guard against bruising. The importance of this is highlighted by the vocabulary used in the trade to describe the different scars on the fruit.

'First there are point scars,' explains Yolanda Martinez, a supervisor in the packing plant. 'They occur when the tip rubs against the skin of other bananas,' she adds, picking up one of the greenish fruits to show what she means. 'Next are maturity stains, sunburns and latex stains from plant sap.'

Yolanda seems a natural leader. There is a calm, unhurried firmness in her gestures and movements. She is tough. She has to be. 'We even have things called dust bruises which are caused, believe it or not, by dust rubbing against the banana skin.'

Fruit scars are also caused by pests. To prevent this, banana plantations use the most potent brew of pesticides and fungicides in Philippine farming. A 1984 Labour Ministry study showed that the banana sector consumes 80 per cent of the herbicides and 90 per cent of the fungicides used in the country. Banana plantations are also allowed by the Government to apply hazardous pesticides such as Paraquat, Mocap and Furadan which are not permitted on other crops.

There are mounting fears that over two decades' heavy use of toxic agricultural chemicals may soon produce a wicked backlash. Trade-union organizers who have long focused on such basic labour issues as wages and benefits in their dealings with Dole and the other big banana transnational, Del Monte, are now paying more attention to health-and-safety concerns.

 CORN/MAIZE 

 A song of the strong

 RICE 

The control of girls
COCOA
A legacy for my (23) children

1984 Labour Ministry study showed that the banana sector consumes 80 per cent of the herbicides and 90 per cent of the fungicides used in the country. Banana plantations are also allowed by the Government to apply hazardous pesticides such as Paraquat, Mocap and Furadan which are not permitted on other crops.

There are mounting fears that over two decades' heavy use of toxic agricultural chemicals may soon produce a wicked backlash. Trade-union organizers who have long focused on such basic labour issues as wages and benefits in their dealings with Dole and the other big banana transnational, Del Monte, are now paying more attention to health-and-safety

continued on next page

 

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