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Article

20 Jan 2021

Author:
SURCOS

Costa Rica: Workers denounce deforestation, extreme working conditions and toxic agro-chemical contamination in Dole's pineapple plantations

"La República Piñatera", 20 January 2021

A territory that seems to have been exonerated by the local political and control authorities of all corporate duty and responsibility, in addition to paying poverty wages and subjecting its employees to extreme working conditions and total abuse of power....To this grim panorama must be added the permanent deforestation in search of new agricultural frontiers for their pineapple crops, the massive and uncontrolled use of agro-toxins of all kinds, some of them even denounced as prohibited, the direct fumigation of workers in the plantations, the contamination of the environment, including the water sources of many local communities, some of which have been fighting for years against these practices, and which even have to be supplied with water by tanker trucks because their natural water sources have been poisoned by Dole and other companies...Dole's local bureaucracy issues medical orders with wilful errors and the affected workers are turned away from doctors' offices for bureaucratic reasons....No one cares if they have to lose a day's work to get to the health posts and are not reimbursed for it. And they do this over and over again, until the workers get tired, give up and return to work sick or injured. In this way, Dole saves having to pay them for medical leave...

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