Strike at H.C.L. II continues

While the future of citrus appears to be looking up, the situation at at-least one large orange farm is still very much up in the air. Workers at the Hummingbird Citrus Limited II at mile three on the Coastal Road are in their second week of a strike. News Five understands that despite a directive from the Prime Minister Said Musa on Thursday that the situation be resolved “immediately” the company’s management which met with labor and union officials last week, was in meetings again all day today. Workers left the fields on February seventh because they wanted an increase in their hourly pay as well as for the bags of fruit they pick. The company has maintained they cannot afford to give the workers a raise. The workers then cut their demand in half but when management failed to accept this condition, on Thursday the workers and members of the Christian Workers Union marched on Belmopan to show their frustration. Under instructions from the Prime Minister, the following day the workers and their union and company representatives met, separately, with Minister of Labor Valdemar Castillo. Over one hundred workers are participating in the strike.

Citrus workers generally get between fifty to sixty cents a box for picking oranges with the hourly rate ranging between two dollars and twenty-five cents to two dollars and seventy-five cents for unskilled labor. Hummingbird Citrus Limited II is one of the largest citrus operations in the country and February is the peak of the reaping season. Most industry workers are not unionized and this may be the longest strike on record.