After the announcement of the sale of Fyffes, unios and industry groups including GMB, Britain’s General unio IUF, the International unio of Foodworkers and Banana link have announced plans to protest at an extraordinary general meeting for shareholders of the company next Monday in Dublin, Ireland.

The planned protest comes ahead of Fyffes sale to Japans Sumitomo Corporation.

A statement issued by GMB calls on the banana firm to address a number of issues, including allegations that the company has sacked and blacklisted individuals for joining trade unios in both Costa Rica and Honduras, and stolen from employees in the shape of unpaid wages, holiday entitlement, education grants and social security contributions.

“Fyffes must take responsibility for ensuring that their local managements in Costa Rica and Honduras recognise and enter into good faith negotiations with local unios and that company-wide freedom of association and collective bargaining is respected at every level," commented IUF General Secretary, Ron Oswald.

In response to the unios announcement, a Fyffes spokesperson told ESM, "The Ethical Trading Initiative is currently overseeing a process looking into these matters, so this action is a purely opportunistic move by the unios concerned. Unlike them, we intend to respect the process and have no further comment to make at this stage."