...Fyffes is firmly committed to freedom of association. We absolutely do not discriminate against workers because of their union affiliation. We have hired STAS affiliated workers, workers with no union affiliation and workers affiliated with the legal unions.

The STAS union provided us with two lists of names, from last season and this season. We have hired every STAS-affiliated worker for whom there are payroll records and who are free to work. This amounts to 44 workers.

To ensure our workers understand freedom of association, we provided freedom of association training to all our workers through an independent non-governmental organisation called FUNDAHRSE that are experts in labour law, both international as all as Honduran law.

STAS was denied the right to bargain on behalf of workers at our farms by the Honduran Ministry of Labour. In Honduran law, there can only be one legal union per operation. The Honduran Ministry of Labour granted legal personality to a union for each of the farms Suragroh and Melon Export. Despite this, we are meeting with STAS regularly to find a way for them to represent their workers as a legal union...