Rose to join European campaigners in Brussels

Fri, Jun 15. 2012

Former Coordinator of the Windward Islands Farmers Association (WINFA) Renwick Rose will join Iris Munguia, Silver Rose Award winner and Coordinator of the Latin American Regional Coordinating Body of Banana and other Agro-Industrial Product Worker Unions (COLSIBA), in Brussels, Belgium, on Wednesday, June 20, to present thousands of signatures to the European Commission (EC) calling for the regulation of supermarket buyer power.{{more}}

Iris represents 60,000 plantation workers, many of whom produce bananas and pineapples, sold in European supermarkets. These workers often fail to earn enough money to meet basic household needs and experience poor working conditions, including the repression of their labour rights as a consequence of supermarkets bullying their suppliers to accept ever lower prices. The livelihoods of nearly 4,000 banana farmers in the tiny Windward Islands depend on supplying UK supermarkets.

Supermarkets are the most powerful actors along tropical fruit supply chains and can make vast profits from the sale of bananas and pineapples. Make Fruit Fair (MFF) is calling for the Code of Practice being developed by the European Commission to apply to the overseas and indirect suppliers of supermarkets and for the Code to be properly enforced and independently monitored by the creation of an ombudsman. MFF is also urging the EC to initiate a complete revision of competition law, as the only way to effectively redress the devastating consequences for workers in supplier countries of the growth in unregulated supermarket buyer power.

A recent report commissioned by Traidcraft, the NFU, Consumers International and others shows the steps taken by many EU member states to tackle unfair commercial practices between retailers and suppliers. It reveals that at least 10 member states have already taken steps at national level to eliminate bad practices and that another five are in the process of doing so. Just last month a UK Parliamentary Bill to introduce an Adjudicator to enforce the Groceries Supply Code of Practice was included in the Queen’s Speech, in recognition of the need to address unfair supermarket trading practices and their negative impacts on workers, farmers and suppliers.

‘We estimate that 1.5 million people depend for their livelihoods on bananas and pineapples exported into the EU. However, the unregulated buyer power of supermarkets can mean that workers in these industries live in poverty and suffer the consequences of dangerous working conditions, including agrochemical exposure. We are asking consumers to lobby Barroso to ensure the European Commission acts without delay,” said Jacqui Mackay, National Coordinator of Banana Link, on behalf of Make Fruit Fair.

Mungula and Rose will be joining Make Fruit Fair campaigners and a colourful cast of tropical fruit characters to present the petition signatures to the European Commission at the Roundpoint Schuman at 11:00 a.m. on June 20. 9,000 consumers have already signed the petition. (Banana Link)