Photo credit: David Brossard
Nearly all bananas consumed in the U.S. come from plantations in Latin America. According to the International Labor Rights Forum, the banana industry has been one of the most highly unionized agricultural sector workforces in the Americas. The Forum says unionized banana workers can make $10 a day plus $10 a day in benefits; non-union banana workers make $3 a day, with no benefits. But unionized workers’ rights to collectively bargain are under threat. Since the summer of 2015, the Make Fruit Fair! campaign says it has collected evidence of violations of labor standards including failure to pay minimum wages and insurance and exposing workers to hazardous agrochemicals.
