Costa Rican Pineapple Workers Reinstated

Nearly five years after they were fired from their jobs at the giant Piña Frut pineapple farm, belonging to Grupo Acon, Leonora Mullins and Eddy Aguilar are back at work. Their union, SITRAP,  took their case for unfair sacking to court. An initial court resolution ordered their resintatement back in April 2012, but was challenged by the company and the appeal against the court order went to the Supreme Court. In October, the Supreme Court backed the resolution ordering reinstatement and back pay for the two workers. At a meeting with Grupo Acon’s Human Resources Manager on Friday 26th April it was agreed that they could start working again from the following Monday. ‘We’re pleased to get our jobs back, said Leonora because we’ve both been refused stable work wherever we have tried in the last four years and have had a lot of trouble making ends meet. We’re really grateful for the tireless efforts of SITRAP’s legal department‘. SITRAP’s General Secretary, Didier Leiton, noted that ‘this success is thanks to the courage of fellow workers who testified in court to the company’s anti-union practices‘.  The union has a number of other cases pending that should lead to the same results in this and other companies. ‘Every day we get nearer to achieving real trade union freedom, but, in the meantime, it is at the cost of a lot of sacrifice and injustice‘.