Banana workers face ‘worsening crisis’, says new report

Workers and unions in the banana industry face a “a stark and worsening global crisis”, according to lobby group Banana Link.

Citing a newly published edition of the International Trade Union Confederation’s Global Rights Index, the organisation’s international coordinator Alistair Smith suggested workers’ rights were “in freefall across every continent around the world”.

In several Latin American and Asian banana-exporting countries, he wrote, the situation had deteriorated over the past decade.

“This report paints a depressing picture of attacks on workers’ rights across economic sectors and geographical regions, and in many instances plantation workers are bearing the brunt of these attacks,” he said.

Both Ecuador and the Philippines are in the report’s top ten worst countries for workers in 2025.

Banana Link also noted that Costa Rica and Panama had seen “a marked worsening” in worker treatment in recent years.

Smith added: “Banana Link will continue to work with its trade union partners to redouble our efforts to defend workers’ rights and promote collective bargaining as the most effective route to sustainable and dignified livelihoods for plantation workers.”