Latest news with #UnitedStates-owned
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
US banana giant Chiquita fires thousands over Panama strike
Banana producer Chiquita has announced mass layoffs in Panama amid an ongoing strike. The United States-owned banana giant said on Friday it was letting 'all' daily labourers go for the 'unjustified abandonment of work at our plantations'. Workers have been on strike for more than a month, as part of nation-wide industrial action protesting new social security laws lowering pensions. The government has branded the strikes 'illegal' and said the sackings are the result of workers' 'intransigence'. Chiquita said in a statement that the strike had caused 'irreversible damage ..[and] at least $75 million in losses', adding that those affected by the layoffs are required to collect severance payments. The company did not elaborate on the number of people affected by the decision. However, the Reuters news agency reported that about 5,000 workers out of 6,500 have lost their jobs, referring to an unnamed source. Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino defended Chiquita's actions at a news conference on Thursday. 'The company will have to act accordingly, dismissing those necessary to save its operation in Bocas [a Caribbean province in Panama]. Believe me, it hurts me, but this intransigence is not good,' he said. 'The strike is illegal,' Mulino added. 'The next step according to the Labour Code is dismissal with just cause because this is a de facto strike, not a legitimate strike.' However, Francisco Smith, secretary-general of the Banana Industry Workers Union (Sitraibana), told the Panamanian television channel Telemetro on Thursday that the strike was legal because the 'deputies who approved bill 462 harmed the banana sector'. Passed in March, Bill 462 introduced changes to the Social Security Fund that could lead to a possible reduction in pensions. The introduction of the law led to significant anger, with unions, including banana workers, joining a national strike on April 23. The government and Sitraibana held a preliminary meeting on Thursday to discuss amendments to the bill, which would include protections for banana farmers. Still, Smith said, 'the strike continues, we continue fighting in the streets… The strike is indefinite.' Panama's banana industry is a significant part of the country's economy. According to the Observatory of Economic Complexity, in 2023, Panama exported $273m worth of bananas, making it the 13th largest exporter in the world.
Yahoo
07-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Kansas Farm Bureau worries Trump official's docking-fee plan can harm farm exporters
Kansas Farm Bureau president Joe Newland, a former Kansas House Republican, said the state's agriculture economy could be harmed by a plan of the Trump administration to impose massive fees on container ships relied on to export Kansas farm products and import fertilizer and other inputs. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector) TOPEKA — The Kansas Farm Bureau president expressed skepticism Monday about the U.S. trade representative's plan to impose U.S. docking fees of as much as $1.5 million on Chinese-built ships operating in international water to haul Kansas farm products to market or deliver key inputs for crop production. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer proposed the policy as part of President Donald Trump's objective of diverting container ship construction from China to the United States. The administration's policy could impact Seaboard Corporation, a Fortune 500 company based in Merriam, Kansas, that operated Seaboard Marine, a large international shipping carrier. Kansas farmers rely on global shipping to import fertilizer or seed and to export crops. In 2022, Kansas exported $7.2 billion in agricultural products. 'We support efforts to increase America's competitiveness in shipbuilding, but the USTR's existing plan would raise shipping costs, destroy jobs and make Kansas agricultural products less competitive in global markets,' said Joe Newland, president of Kansas Farm Bureau. He said steps should be taken to make certain U.S.-owned shipping companies and their customers, which included the state's farmers and ranchers, weren't 'caught in the crosshairs of misguided policy.' U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids, a Democrat from Kansas and a member of the U.S. House Agriculture Committee, said the Trump administration's blueprint for surging fees on American shipping companies would inflict damage on businesses and farmers, as well as threaten national security. She said Trump administration's proposed fee change could prove so costly that Seaboard's marine division might be forced out of business. 'While I support strengthening America's shipbuilding industry and the American workers employed by the sector, I am concerned that the proposed action, as currently written, will have unintended consequences that would be devastating for United States-owned international ocean carriers and employment at dozens of ports around the country,' Davids said. Davids said industry experts warned the trade representative's strategy could backfire by disrupting supply chains, driving up costs, narrowing options for U.S. exporters and providing Chinese companies with a competitive advantage. She said the trade representative should amend proposed docking levies to protect U.S.-owned shipping companies while also encouraging growth of American shipbuilding. The plan called for a service fee of up to $1 million for Chinese-owned operators of shipping vessels making a U.S. port of call. The fee could rise to $1.5 million for fleets containing Chinese-built vessels making a port of call.
