Interview with Concepcion Medina (by Alvaro Rojas Valverde)

Since the time he was 16 years old, he gave all of his strength and committed his whole life to the banana plantations there, he gained experience and fought its struggles. Coto, Valle de la Estrella and various farms of Pococi, were the names of places where he learned about the world of the banana plantations, always -as he says- alongside his work companions....

Medina begins the conversation by closing his eyes halfway, as if to order his thoughts. He quickly runs through these 50 years. Sometimes he seems sad, like when he remembers about the time when some of his friends were fired, at other times he closes his fists, but the greater part of the time he is smiling, because --as he says-- at his 65 years of age he feels full of energy and the desire to live and to struggle.

AWith great pleasure I will tell you some things about my life as a banana worker. I was born in San Antonio de Nicoya, in December of 1934. As you can see, I will be 65 years old. I left my village at the age of 15 and at 16 I began my life in the banana plantations, precisely at finca 52 (farm 52) in Golfito. From there I went to Valle de la Estrella. There I spent 4 years, and at the end of this time they fired me without paying me a thing. They accused me of doing bad work. The truth is that the one who did bad work was a man named Jonas, but, at the end, it was me that the whale swallowed.

I went back to the Zona Sur (Southern Zone) and I was in Coto 52, 49, 63 and 54. In 1967 I came here to the area around Guapiles and I worked at a number of farms, Santa Clara, San Rafael (where I was for 13 years) and Finca Jardin. In 1986 I stopped working in the banana plantations, although I always tried to keep myself informed of how things were going in the banana plantations. It's because being a banana worker becomes ingrained and I was involved in this struggle almost all of my life.

When I began to work exporting wasn't done in boxes, but in bunches. The bananas were hauled on mules, using mats to avoid bruising. I came to know about the packing system at Valle de la Estrella. During these years, life was hard on a banana plantation. You had to rise at four in the morning because at five you had to be in line; this is what they call the place where tasks are distributed to each laborer. If you arrive after the hour, they make you leave. From then on it was a full day at work. You got back to the baches at five or six in the afternoon. There was no fixed hour for lunch. If you were working close to the canteen, you could go there to eat lunch. To the contrary, the canteen server sent lunch to you with a company car. The bad part was that sometimes the lunch got lost and you had to endure serious hunger.

The work was very hard. There were some very big bunches, ones that had up to 17 hands and weighed up to one hundred fifty pounds. You had to carry them on your back for up to 250 meters. It wasn't until later, when there were unions, that the companies were forced to string more cables so that the workers wouldn't have to haul the fruit so far. One was quite mistreated. It's not to give myself credit, but at this time it wasn' t just any man who was conchero.

In the Valle de la Estrella there wasn't anything to do for entertainment except for drinking guaro (an alcoholic drink made from sugar cane) and visiting whore houses. The great majority of us were single and we lived three by three in these baches. While some guys had their bunks, many others only had a simple piece of cardboard to sleep on. As far as health matters, it was pretty bad, there were a lot of illnesses, and not a thought of a hospital, the only thing there were dispensaries. Many people came and left again. They couldn't take it.

I heard about organizing for the first time in 1963. There was a union, but afterwards we found out it was paid by the company itself. They told us that the workers had such and such rights, and that the company had to treat us in such and such a way. But in reality everything was to the contrary and that union didn't do anything. Later, another appeared which was called the red union. I organized there for the first time, in the UTG, but at this time it wasn=t very strong. In the Valle de la Estrella there was no organization. I went around, together with other work companions, trying to create an organization. The company didn=t want the people to organize themselves for anything in the world, and there were many informers. These, and other companions were denounced and fired. I wasn't, I don't know why not.

The workers were mistreated and earned very little. There were people who came out bi-weekly with 120 colones (Costa Rican currency). The food at the canteen cost around 50 pesos, with the extras.

As for me, during my life on the banana plantations, I carried out many different types of work: embolsa (bagger), deshija, rodajea, palero, cortado (cutter), conchero, encargado (person in charge) and even capataz (foreman). This last job may seem strange to you, but I always felt that the most important thing was to do whatever job well, with a conscience, but without constraining the worker. Nonetheless, during the time I was in charge and foreman I saw some ugly things. Once I saw that a sack of fertilizer was hidden from a companion and afterwards they spread it around and accused him of dumping out the fertilizer. This companion bellowed with rage. He came to me and said: AConcepcion, you know that I am an old worker. How do you think I would get myself into this at this stage of the game? You know that I haven't emptied out the fertilizer; this is a trap so they can fire me@. I said to him: I haven't put the fertilizer there either. I am aware that you haven't done anything wrong. Poor thing, he was fired. I only remember that they called him Chomes.

On another occasion, there was a worker who was a carrero (carrier) and as he was working the rola (pulley) derailed from the cable and all of the banana bunches fell. The company sent for a lawyer from Guapiles; they told the worker that he didn't have any rights and that he was to be fired. If he didn't accept this, the company was going to file a lawsuit on him for the losses. They fired the companion without giving him anything.

Here in the zone of Guapiles, working on the San Rafael farm, I participated in various struggles for workers= rights. Also, I was a member of the board of directors of the STAPPG on three or four occasions (I don't remember that well). On this farm I participated in a bitter struggle. We were suffering from low salaries. So, we made a request to the company. This was on May 2nd, a day after we had gone to the parade for International Workers Day (May 1st). I got the people together and I told them: I am affiliated to the union, but now that we are going to go to speak with the administration, no one should mention anything that has to do with the union.

The response that the company gave was very bad; they offered a wage increase of only a few cents. After that, many workers decided to join the union. We went ten by ten, until we completed the number demanded by the law and we set out everything that was required for signing the convention. The convention was negotiated and for some eight years we were organized and protected by it. But the company never was in agreement with the union and they put in solidarismo. I remember that they held a meeting during work hours, which Father Solano attended, and as a matter of fact he had a little dispute with me. We didn't let the Father speak much and during this meeting he didn't convince anyone. The company did all of this even though the union was recognized and its convention signed.

During one of the strikes that we had I was imprisoned for 16 days, they accused me of being the leader. They imprisoned me together with a colleague by the name of Ema Hernandez, and I was in the prison, in San Jose, for 16 days. They tortured me there, asking me where we had the weapons, which was a pure fabrication. They struck me and crushed my fingers. Then one day, they simply told me, go now because you are free. One of the companions from the union that was called FENATI gave me 20 pesos and that=s how I returned to Guapiles.

Finally they defeated us at the farm, by pressure, settling up with the people, giving the worst work to the unionized workers and bringing people from another farm that was named La Teresa, where solidarismo was in place.

Right now I don=t work on the banana plantations. I made payments to Social Security since 1972, but I don't see myself receiving any pension. I went there a short while ago, but after hearing what they said to another worker, I decided it was better to leave. I still have strength and lots of work experience on the banana plantation. There are some tasks that perhaps I can no longer do, but others I still can carry out. The bad part is that the banana companies almost never give work to persons over 40 years old.

Now I see that things are pretty grim for the people. Look what is happening with BANDECO. They have settled up with almost everyone because of the story that there are problems with the fruit overseas. They have a trick. Today at 11 a.m. they settle up with the workers and later the same day they rehire them, but lowering the price of the different tasks. Now the workers make very bad salaries. Some people I know, who joined into solidarismo, I see them now and I tell them: diay, what happened, why doesn't solidarismo defend you? But what can you do, with solidarismo there are no rights for workers. A little while ago I heard Assembly Representative Merino asking the Minister of Labor to come and visit the plantations, come to the countryside, to speak with the people. I like this, I think that the law should be enforced in the banana plantations because right now the worker is bad off. The companies have gone back in time, like when there were no laws and they paid you whatever they felt like.

Presently there are a lot of reprisals in the banana plantations; the people are threatened with dismissal if they join a union. But it is a right that we all have and as I see things, only by organizing once again can the situation be improved@.