They've gone to great extremes proving it in the U.S., carving a physical record of torture and blood spilling against those who feel they should be given a decent wage for their own life energy, concern, consciousness directed into their work. They need a respectable wage for all their life investment for which the owners are paid. Conservatives would prefer slavery for workers if they could only pull it off.
We have our own history to inform us of how far they have gone against fellow U.S. Americans to take far more from them than they have ever been willing to pay.
Most people are still unaware of how savagely they have actually treated the poor of the Americas in countries where they can pay off the government officials to allow them to work without respect for the working class. They have suffered hideously, and still do. They are so poor many families in Central America have children who must help work harvesting bananas instead of being able to go to school.
Every year a conservative runs a country like Panama and the people continue to suffer is a year from hell which should have never happened.
~~~~~US Department of Labor report
Child Labor in Panama, 2005
by the US Department of Labor
Incidence and Nature of Child Labor
The Panama Census and Statistics Directorate estimated that 3.6 percent of children ages 5 to 14 years were working in Panama in 2000. Many working children in Panama live in rural areas and are engaged in agricultural activities. Rates of work also tend to be higher among indigenous than non-indigenous children. Children work in subsistence agriculture as well as on commercial farms that produce sugar cane, coffee, watermelons and other melons, tomatoes, and onions. There are conflicting reports as to whether children work in the banana sector. Some children, including children from indigenous communities in Panama, migrate with their families to other regions of the country and to Costa Rica to participate in crop harvests. Child labor is one of many problems associated with poverty. In 2000, 7.2 percent of the population in Panama were living on less than $1 a day.
Children are also found working in urban areas in Panama, especially in the informal sector. Children work in supermarkets bagging groceries in return for tips. They engage in street vending, work in urban markets and trash dumps, and work as assistants for bus drivers. Children in Panama also work as domestic servants in third-party homes.
Children are engaged in prostitution in Panama. Panama is a source and destination country for children trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation. Children are trafficked within Panama and from Colombia for sexual exploitation. In addition, some child domestic servants may be trafficking victims. There are also reports that insurgent and paramilitary groups from Colombia have forcibly conscripted children from Panama’s border region with Colombia.
More:
http://www.thepanamanews.com/pn/v_12/issue_18/business_04.html~~~~~Information on conditions in banana work, from Ecuador during the era right before Ecuador was able to elect a leftist leader, Rafael Correa, and end the presence of US military at their Manta Air Base, one of Correa's campaign promises:
ECUADOR: Blood on the bananas
Wednesday, July 31, 2002 - 10:00
BY DAVID BACON
SAN FRANCISCO — Bonita, the word for beautiful in Spanish, is not a bad description for the nearly flawless bananas available from fruit and vegetable markets across the United States. It is also the name printed on stickers attached to the millions of yellow bunches. But bonita is not the word used by hundreds of workers to describe their experience growing, harvesting and packing that perfect fruit.
That Bonita label belongs to Alvaro Noboa's Exportadora Bananera Noboa, the largest banana exporting company in Ecuador. In April, 1400 Bonita workers organised a union on seven Noboa plantations in Hacienda Los Alamos. They asked for what was already, in many cases, legally required from their employer.
Ecuadorian law says workers must be enrolled in the national health care system — but on banana plantations, virtually no one is. The workers wanted higher wages — their average wage is less than the legal minimum — and they wanted legal recognition for their union, a right guaranteed by Ecuadorian law. Few of the 150,000 banana workers in Ecuador, the largest workforce in the Latin American banana industry, belong to a union.
The company's reaction was swift. More than 120 workers were fired almost immediately and workers on temporary contracts were told that there was no more work. Efforts to negotiate with Noboa went nowhere. After three more union activists were fired, the workers went out on strike on May 6.
Nine days later, on the evening of May 15, 400 hooded men armed with rifles arrived at one of the idle plantations in a Noboa company truck. They invaded the strikers' homes and took the possessions of many workers.
Jan Nimmo, a Scottish observer for BananaLink (an international organisation supporting banana workers), described what strikers told her: "They banged on the doors with rifle butts and dragged workers from their beds kicking them and hitting them. They dragged them out semi-dressed ...
to the radio office where they were forced to squat with their heads down and their hands behind their backs. They were beaten and insulted and ... told that they were being taken to be killed and dumped in the river."
When strikers tried to resist, many were shot. Mauro Romero's leg was later amputated as a result of his wounds. On the second evening, the armed men shot into the strikers again, wounding more. A large police contingent only arrived the following day, but strikers who were living in company housing on the plantations were expelled. Scabs were brought in to restart production.
More:
http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/26991
~~~~~
Panama - Working conditions
A 1995 law significantly expanded the right of workers to establish unions. However, only about 10 percent of the workforce is unionized. There are over 250 active unions with approximately 80,000 members. Many employees in the public sector , including police and health-care workers, are not allowed to strike. In addition, the 10,000 employees who work for the Panama Canal Authority are also not allowed to strike.
There are laws against child labor, but children between the ages of 12 and 14 may work on farms or as domestic workers. In addition, children as young as 9 are employed in occupations such as street vendors, car washers, or baggers in grocery stores. Nonetheless, the government estimates that the worst excesses of child labor occur in agriculture, especially on coffee, sugar cane, and banana plantations. Children between the ages of 14 and 16 may be employed with a 36-hour workweek. The national workweek is 48 hours with a minimum one day rest period per week. The Ministry of Labor is responsible for overseeing worker health and safety issues.
Panama has the highest minimum wage in Central America. The nation's minimum wage varies from province to province and ranges from US$0.80 percent per hour to US$1.50 per hour. The highest wage is in the capital region, the lowest is in the rural regions. The government of President Mireya Elisa Moscoso Rodriguez plans to increase the minimum wage by 40 percent by 2005. In spite of the minimum wage, most workers in the rural areas only earn between US$3 to US$6 per day. Government estimates are that as much as 39 percent of the population earns less than the minimum wage. Women earn an average of 20 percent less than men do in similar occupations. Women also face discrimination in hiring and promotion.
http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/economies/Americas/Panama-WORKING-CONDITIONS.html
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