Company has apparently requested government permission to sack all of its remaining banana workers in the country
Multinational fruit company Chiquita has reportedly pulled all of its administrative employees out of Panama and asked the country’s government for permission to let all remaining staff members go.
Quoting the Panamanian labour minister Jackeline Muñoz de Cedeño, Reuters said around 1,500 banana workers employed by Chiquita across the country would be dismissed following widespread strike action to protest against planned social security reforms.
The company itself has described the strike among its labourers in the western province of Bocas del Toro since late April as an “unjustified abandonment of work” and suggested it could lose tens of millions of dollars in lost banana sales.
The company fired around 5,000 workers of a total of 6,500 employees nationwide last month in response to the strike.
