GMB holds fruit-picking giant Fyffes ultimately responsible for brutal machete attack on trade union leader and his brother in honduras
Buck for violence stops with 'gangster capitalists' Fyffes, says union.
GMB holds fruit-picking giant Fyffes ultimately responsible for a brutal machete attack which left a young man with life-changing injuries.
Misael Sanchez was slashed across the face with the blade when he tried to stop two armed thugs abducting his brother Moises.
The men targeted Moises because he is branch secretary of GMB's sister trade union STAS.
The attacked him outside a Fyffes melon plantation, bundled him into a vehicle and beat him for around 40 minutes.
The pair put a gun to his head and told him that if he continued with his trade union activities, he would be killed.
The following day, the brothers were warned that the group who attacked them were delinquents who acted as hired killers.
The shocking attack came just two weeks after Fyffes declared that it "fully respects the right of all it workers to freedom of association".
While there is no suggestion Fyffes is in any way linked to the violence, GMB says the company's anti-union policies help generate an atmosphere in which attacks like this take place.
GMB International Officer, Bert Schouwenburg, said:
"GMB holds Fyffes ultimately responsible for the brutal attack on Moises Sanchez and his brother which was clearly aimed at deterring people from joining the union and standing up for rights that have been denied to them by the company's Honduran subsidary.
"Two weeks prior to the attack, Fyffes refuted allegations made against them by the International Labour Rights Forum in the USA, saying that they respected freedom of association in Honduras.
"The Sanchez brothers' horrendous experience makes a mockery of that claim, especially as it is just the latest in a long history of violence and intimidation.
"While there is no evidence to suggest that Fyffes is directly linked to the attack, GMB says that their aggressive anti-union stance engenders a hostile atmosphere in one of the world's most violent places."
"Their brand of gangster capitalism has no place in the 21st Century."
