Over the last three years, Glasgow based artist Jan Nimmo has gathered images and testimonies to make a series of portraits of banana workers. English with Spanish subtitles.

A film by Jan Nimmo.

Co-produced and edited by Cassandra McGrogan.

Sound by John Cobban and Craig Aitchison.

Music by Los Reyes del Vallenato.

In spring 2002 Jan visited Ecuador for the first time. Although Ecuador is the world’s largest exporter of bananas, the workers have the lowest pay and the worst conditions in the whole of Latin America.

The country’s biggest banana baron is Álvaro Noboa of the Bonita Brands company.

He’s the country’s richest man and owns the world’s fourth largest banana company but his workers are only paid $3.00 a day - a lot less than the legal minimum wage.

Banana worker unions

The economic and political power of big business means that less than 1% of banana workers in Ecuador are members of unions.

When workers decided to organise and strike to gain the most basic of labour rights, Jan found herself witnessing the violent attack on a peaceful occupation of a Bonita banana plantation.

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Contact Jan, the filmmaker, directly if you want a copy of this film or if you would like to organise a screening.

Jan Nimmo - This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it - tel: +44 141 357 3803

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