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IRISH fruit giant Fyffes poisoned 13 Honduran women workers with pesticides at a melon plantation, trade union GMB said today.
GMB’s Honduran sister union STAS said the women became ill after inhaling toxic chemicals while working in a hazardous area without personal protection equipment.
STAS requested a Labour Ministry inspection of the Fyffes Choluteca plantation after the women developed symptoms of poisoning, but the visiting official failed to even interview them.
GMB international officer Bert Schouwenburg said: “Once again Ireland-based gangster capitalists Fyffes have shown utter contempt for their workers by deploying them in areas where they could be affected by noxious chemicals” — but the firm still received the Ethical Trade Initiative seal of approval.
Global brand Fyffes supplies bananas and pineapples to most major British supermarkets. Mr Schouwenburg asked what guarantees their customers had that their fruit wasn’t “covered in the same pesticides” and concealing “the same inhuman farming practices.”
