Lawyers for the Westlake Village, Los Angeles produce giant have filed a request in Los Angeles Superior Court asking that nearly 1,500 Honduran farm workers who are suing Dole be allowed to drop out of those suits and settle their claims out of court under an existing program arranged by the company and Honduran government officials.

The benefit for Dole is that it could quickly end possibly years of litigation from thousands of former workers in an inexpensive way. What’s more, the program could serve as a model to help the company settle with plaintiffs from other countries. The workers meanwhile could get some money quickly instead of waiting years for an uncertain outcome, according to Dole.

However, some allege the plan is merely a way for the company to skate out of its responsibilities, and have vowed to fight the plan.

The former plantation workers, along with thousands of others in nearby Central American countries, claim they were made sterile by Dole’s use of dibromochloropropane, or DBCP, which has been linked to sterility and has since been banned.

“If this is a settlement structure that works for the workers, then our view is they should be able to avail themselves of it and extract themselves from the U.S. court system,” said Andrea Neuman, an attorney with downtown L.A.-based Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP who is representing Dole…Continue news article here.
Visit the following link to learn about the banana trade in Honduras.