PETITION CLOSED

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  1. Signatures
    1,741 out of 2,500
    Petitioning
    1. President and Chief Executive Officer, and Director (+ 9 others)
      Petitioning
      close
      • President and Chief Executive Officer, and Director (Mr. David A. DeLorenzo)
      • Senior Vice President of Human Resources and Industrial Relations, Dole Food Company, Inc (Sue Hagen)
      • Vice President and Director, Worldwide Corporate Social Responsibility (Sylvain Cuperlier)
      • President of Dole’s North American Tropical and Fresh Fruit division (Mike Cavallero)
      • Corporate Social Responsibility Manager (Roberto Vega)
      • Senior VP of Gibraltar Associates, the company managing Dole's PR (Scott Evertz)
      • VP of Gibraltar Associates, the company managing Dole's PR (Mollie Turner)
      • Senior Associate, Gibraltar Associates, the company managing Dole's PR (Kristin Curren)
      • Senior Manager, Gibraltar Associates, the company managing Dole's PR (Jackie Kahn)
      • Chairman of Dole's Board of Directors (Elaine L. Chao)
  2. Created By
    Tiffany Scalia
    Los Angeles, CA
About this Petition Petition Letter Petition Updates

Throughout the 1970s, Dole Fruit Co. used chemicals such as DBCP and DDVCD on its banana fields in Nicaragua.  The use of these chemicals has caused ailments in over 16,000 former Dole workers.  Over 2,500 have already died from toxic exposure.*

Despite knowledge of the health risks of these chemicals,  which were banned in the U.S., Dole allowed Nicaraguan workers to be exposed. Dole concealed the danger while failing to provide protective clothing or proper safety training to banana workers.

Workers began to notice the detrimental health effects of the chemicals in the late 1970s…miscarriages, birth defects, skin ailments, sores that wouldn’t heal. And eventually, cancer of the pancreas and brain, blindness, kidney and liver problems, and sterility among both men and women. Pesticides were even detected in the breast milk of nursing mothers.

The Nicaraguan workers have struggled for 19 years to receive compensation. They have yet to receive anything. Those affected do not seek riches – they only request justice.  While they have won lawsuits both in Nicaraguan and in US courts, they have yet to receive any sort of payment because of corruption on both sides.  The lawyers and judges should be punished – not the ill and injured victims of Dole’s irresponsible business practices!

Many former workers have moved to the capital of Nicaragua, Managua, and live in temporary tent-like homes in hope of raising awareness of their struggle. Their live-in protest and our demonstrations of solidarity are not meant to be attacks on Dole – but instead pleas for the company to embrace their social responsibility and deliver just compensation to innocent former employees.   

Sign today to urge the CEO of Dole, Mr. DeLorenzo to take these peoples' story to heart and provide them with the medical coverage they need and very rightfully deserve.

*This information is from a presentation by former Dole employees. The presentation was given in Managua, Nicaragua in January of 2011.

 

 

 

Why People Are Signing
Recent Signatures

Dole: Taking responsibility for the health of your workers

Greetings

I am writing to urge Dole Food Company, Inc. (Dole) to provide compensation to former Dole banana workers who were exposed to pesticides in the 1970s, and to request the Governor of California, Jerry Brown, to call for an investigation and intervene for justice on their behalf. I am also imploring the U.S. Department of Justice and the Attorney General of Nicaragua, as well as the State of California Commission on Judicial Performance, to investigate Dole's use of false and anonymous witnesses and Judge Victoria Chaney's involvement, rulings, and orders in regards to those witnesses.

On Dole’s “Social Responsibility” webpage, the company provides its mission statement. It states, “As a foundational value of Dole Food Company, Corporate Social Responsibility shapes the beliefs, actions, and decisions we take to treat all Dole employees with dignity and respect.” It continues, “To this end, we pay special attention when it comes to safeguarding Dole employee health…”

These are admirable values.

However, thousands of banana plantation workers of Nicaragua were exposed in the 1970s to the U.S. banned chemical pesticide dibromochloropropane (DBCP). This chemical has been proven to cause human male sterility, and linked to cancer and other maladies. Dole concealed the danger while failing to provide protective clothing or proper safety training to banana workers.

For over 30 years Dole has failed to test or compensate the Nicaraguan plantation workers, even though it was known since at least the 1970s that this chemical causes male sterility. Many of the plantation workers have already died and continue to die without justice.

In 2009 Dole Food Company, Inc. (Dole) "persuaded" Los Angeles Judge Victoria Chaney to issue secret orders that allowed anonymous witnesses to commit perjury, color all of the legal cases as fraudulent, and deprive the Nicaraguan plantation workers of the justice sought in the United States.

Several of Dole's "anonymous" witnesses have publicly confessed to the Nicaraguan media of being bribed by Dole agents to commit perjury. We request that the truth about Dole's use of anonymous witnesses, including their names and alleged testimony be finally revealed to the falsely accused, the public and the checks and balances of government.

Many former workers are now living in temporary housing provided by the Nicaraguan government in Managua, after spending years living in tent-like homes in hope of raising awareness of their struggle. Their live-in protest is not meant to be an attack on your company – but instead a plea for Dole to embrace its social responsibility and deliver just compensation to its innocent former employees in Nicaragua.

Dole should embrace its stated values of “Corporate Social Responsibility” and adequately address the issue of pesticide exposure.

I support the campaign calling on Dole to provide medical care for your poisoned banana workers, and implore you to act on your conscience by providing for those suffering from what was clearly irresponsible business practice. I also call on U.S. and Nicaraguan government officials to ensure "fairness", "justice" and the "rule of law" for the thousands of Nicaraguan ex-banana plantation workers seeking justice.

I look forward to your reply at the response email below.

[Your name]

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