Banana workers in Nicaragua, who after years of work in the fields, say pesticide use has made them sterile. They are suing Dow, Dole and other firms in L.A.

From www.latimes.com - THE people crammed into the stifling basketball gym. They filled the court, lined the walls and tumbled beyond the doors onto the sun- blistered streets.

They had gathered to hear a promise of justice.

Many had spent their lives toiling on banana plantations that U.S. companies operated in this region some 30 years ago. By day, the workers had harvested bunches of fruit to ship to North American tables. At night, some had sprayed pesticide into the warm, humid air to protect the trees from insects and rot.

As the decades passed, the workers came to believe that the pesticide, called DBCP, had cost them their health. Prodded by U.S. lawyers, thousands joined lawsuits in the U.S. and Nicaragua alleging that the pesticide made them sterile.

The U.S. firms that sold and used the pesticide have never faced a U.S. jury trial over its use abroad. Last month, a Los Angeles attorney named Juan J. Dominguez stood before a sea of nearly 800 dark, hard faces and predicted that the day of reckoning was at hand.

“We are fighting multinational corporations. They are giants. And they are going to fall!” Dominguez thundered.

The crowd exploded. They leapt to their feet, waved their hats, shook fists in the air. “Viva! Viva!” they chanted. (source)

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