Trouble Brewing in the Banana Republic

The export banana industry is the cornerstone of the Davao Region’s economy, consuming 66,561 hectares of agricultural land, and earning US$884.7 million in 2005.1 The Philippines currently ranks no. 2 in exporting countries, while export demand grows by 3-6% every year.2 Transnational corporations such as DelMonte, Dole (Castle & Cooke), and Chiquita/Unifrutti dominate world trade and production, partnering with big landlords and business men in their Philippine operations (Soriano/AMS Group of Companies, Floirendo/TADECO, Marsman-Drysdale, and
Lorenzo/Lapanday). Davao City’s infrastructure, such as ports and roads, continues to be improved and expanded to accommodate the growing demand for Philippine bananas in the global market.

The Workers’ Condition.  While some argue that export bananas are the path to economic growth and development, the estimated 44,000 workers of this industry would argue otherwise. Conversations with workers will reveal incidents of illness and injury resulting from a lack of proper safety equipment for handling sharp tools and chemical fertilizers and pesticides; long working hours (up to 16 hours a day) in order to meet the family’s need for survival and the company’s mandated quota; women workers being told to “lay down or be laid off” by managers and supervisors who
require sexual favors in exchange for work; obliging entire families to work the field without compensation so as to meet the production quota; co-workers dying on the job due to over-work while suffering from pneumonia; whole communities being exposed to dangerous pesticides applied through aerial spraying, causing outbreaks of rashes, skin diseases, and other long-term health problems, such as cancer and sterility. Through the years, the transnational corporations that control the production process have been able to avoid direct accountability to the workers that grow and pack their bananas by taking advantage of the government’s land reform program and growership schemes that pit small land reform beneficiaries, and small farmers against agricultural workers. Through cooperative schemes and contractualization of the workforce3, these companies and their local affiliates have been able to blur the
employer-employee relationship, escaping from any legal obligation to the workers.