Still no resolution to citrus strike
It ain’t over till it’s over. Workers of the Hummingbird Citrus Limited II, are in their fifth day of a strike and say they won’t go back to the fields until they get want they want: more money. Yesterday, accompanied by their advisors, the Christian Workers Union, the workers marched on Belmopan to show their frustration. The Prime Minister issued the directive that the matter to be resolved immediately. Today the workers and their union and company representatives met separately, with Minister of Labor Valdemar Castillo. Antonio Gonzalez, General Secretary for the Union, says the first part of the meeting discussed the demands and then the company had its turn to explain their position. Up to news time, they were still at the negotiation table. The over one hundred workers on strike are asking for a raise in their hourly pay as well as what they get to reap a bag of fruit. According to the Chief Operations Officer of the Citrus Growers Association, Rudolph Williams, most of the workers in the industry get between fifty and sixty cents a box for picking oranges. Williams says the average hourly rate is between two dollars and twenty-five cents to two dollars and seventy-five cents for unskilled labor. Management has gone on record saying that this year, they’re paying sixty cents to reap oranges but workers allege they are being paid two dollars an hour for doing contract work, like spreading fertilizer. Employees originally asked for a fifty-cent an hour raise. They later chopped that in half but management has maintained the company is having a cash flow problem. Hummingbird Citrus Limited II is one of the largest citrus operations in the country and February is the peak of the reaping season. The last time we asked Bertran Faux, Manager for the company, whether or not those on strike would be replaced, he declined to comment. Since most of the workers for large farms are not unionized, this is perhaps the first time workers in the citrus industry have gone on strike for so long.
