Reply #42: Is this what you call paying for "protection," Chiquita?

[Judi Lynn]

Coca-Cola, Nestle and Chiquita Brands on ‘Trial'

~snip~
Nestle, along with Chiquita Brands and Coca-Cola, is also accused of harassing unionised workers.

In 2003, Chiquita admitted that it had paid the AUC paramilitary network for what it called "protection" for its employees.

According to the PPT, there is also evidence that in 2001 the banana company transported 3,000 AK-47 assault rifles and five million munitions to paramilitary groups in Córdoba and Urabá, regions in northwestern Colombia that are dominated by the right-wing militias.

The PPT stated that in order to force workers to quit a union or their job, to stop pressing legitimate grievances, or to accept poor working conditions, these corporations routinely turn to the paramilitaries who, by means of intimidation, threats, abductions, torture and murder, defend the "harmful designs of the corporations and the Colombian state."
(snip/...)

http://www.globalexchange.org/countries/americas/colombia/3871.html