Strike Shuts Down Banana Plantations (17,000 workers) in Northern Colombia

http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=334251&CategoryId=12393

BOGOTA – More than 17,000 people working on some 300 banana plantations in northwestern Colombia’s Uraba region went on strike Friday to press for better pay and conditions.

Workers at all the plantations of the region took part in the protest, according to the Sintrainagro union, which had set midnight Thursday for the launch of the job action.



More than 99 percent of the workers voted in favor of the strike at an assembly held on April 22 in Apartado, the main town in the banana-growing region.

Banana growers said the strike was regrettable and that it would adversely affect the region and the stability of “more than 100,000 families who depend on that activity,” as well as “a half million people who benefit from the banana agro-industry in Uraba.”

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