Chiquita Bananas returns to Panama. The brands of Chiquita Giant American Banana will return to Panama and Rehine to the thousands of workers offered when they stopped their activities in the country three months ago due to a strike, the Panamanian government announced on Friday.
The decision was taken in a meeting in Brazil between the president of Panamano, José Raúl Mulino, and Chiquita’s leaders, after several weeks of negotiations between the Panama government and the US company controlled by Brazilian companies. “We have reached a positive agreement for Bocas del Toro (bananas producer of the Caribbean province) and the thousands of dismissed workers,” said Raúl Mulino in a video transmitted by the Panamanian presidency.
Chiquita had closed her factory in Changinola at the end of May and dismissed more than 6,000 employees after a strike against a retirement reform that partially paralyzed the province of 100,000 inhabitants for weeks that live mainly of tourism and bananas, the first export product of Panama.
$ 75 million in losses
“We will relaunch our activities in the country with a new operational model, which is more sustainable, modern and effective, generating valuable works and contributing to the economic and social development of the country and the province,” said the president of Chiquita, Carlos López, cited in a press release. The company said the strike, declared illegal by the courts, caused more than $ 75 million in losses.
Source: BFM TV
