[fsf60k] Fwd: Nicaragua Network Hotline--December 15, 2009
- From: michael cipoletti <ikecip@xxxxxxx>
- To: FSF60K@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 22 Dec 2009 21:34:07 -0500
interesting stuff...
Begin forwarded message:
> Topic 1: Sugar companies oppose bill to help sick sugar workers
>
> The National Committee of Sugar Producers (CNPA) attacked a bill presented to
> the National Assembly to address high levels of Chronic Renal Insufficiency
> (CRI) in the areas where sugar cane is grown in Nicaragua. The Committee said
> that sugar growers and processors do not accept any relationship between the
> sugar industry and CRI.
>
> The bill is the result of nine months work by the National Multi-Sector
> Commission established by the National Assembly to address the problem. It
> studied the preliminary results of a study by the National Autonomous
> University of Nicaragua (UNAN-Leon) on the causes of CRI which showed that
> agricultural activity, principally the growing of sugar cane but also of
> bananas and peanuts, had a direct relationship to the kidney disease suffered
> by the workers and by the population living near the plantations.
>
> "Based on this data," said Dr. Wilfredo Barreto, chair of the Commission,
> "the executive committee began to put together two documents: a Protocol of
> Understanding to include both government and the private sugar industry as
> responsible parties that must provide an answer in the short term to the
> demands of the affected workers; and a law that would provide a legal
> instrument to resolve the matter in a more definitive fashion through the
> promotion of good production practices in the agricultural sector." The law
> if passed would regulate the use of agrochemicals, working conditions,
> workplace safety and hygiene. It would also address the use of contractors
> and sub-contractors who provide workers for the plantations and thus
> supposedly provide a degree of separation between the owners and the workers
> and limit legal responsibility.
>
> The CNPA, representing the sugar companies, reacted immediately with paid ads
> in the principal daily newspapers attacking Lopez and saying that the
> companies provided an "excellent health system to protect workers and their
> families." The ads said the companies maintained "vigorous business
> responsibility practices in which protection of the environment occupies a
> fundamental place." The CNPA attacked "the sectors that want to discredit our
> industry and that promote distorted information about kidney disease,
> generating antagonisms that have only obstructed the search for an
> explanation for and a solution to this public health problem."
>
> For nine months, a group of former sugar workers from the San Antonio Sugar
> Mill, supported by the International Union of Food and Agricultural Workers
> (UITA), has been attempting to engage officials of Nicaragua Sugar Estates in
> dialogue about possible compensation for their condition with no progress.
> Meanwhile over 3,500 workers out of an estimated 8,000 ill workers have died.
>
> For information about a boycott of Flor de Caña Rum organized by a group of
> Nicaraguan young people, visit here.
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