In an effort to be fair and show both sides of the situation in Central America with the sugarcane field workers, here is a letter from Carla Palazio, Office of the Presidency, Compañía Licorera de Nicaragua .
Dear
Members of the USBG:
As you
are likely aware, Flor de Caña is fielding inquires and follow-ups from
bartenders who are concerned about working conditions at Ingenio San Antonio
Sugar Mill (ISA). This comes on the heels of recent press about sugarcane
workers with a kidney disease of unknown origin (i.e., Mesoamerican Nephropathy
or CKDu).
We
share their passion. For many years now, we have been dedicating significant
resources to this complex epidemic that is yet to be fully understood by the
medical and occupational health communities. However, since we consider the
articles incomplete, we would like to shed additional light on our efforts.
While
the press articles rightfully share concern and sympathy for workers with this
unsolved kidney disease, they fail to reflect our own commitment and how deeply
we care for, value, and invest in our workers. The articles have not discussed
our openness to collaborating with many parties who have a vested interest in
understanding, diagnosing and proposing solutions to this situation, nor
referenced our research collaborations with academic medical partners such as
Boston University and Baylor University. In fact, our current operational
procedures reflect changes we've made based on the recommendations from these
partners.
We
believe our continued work to advance knowledge and prevention programming is
critical because our people are our greatest assets. This desire to protect
their health and safety is in keeping with our 125-year legacy of building
industry infrastructure that supports the development and welfare of our
workforce. To that end, we hope to continue with what we have always done,
which is put the education, transparency and health of our workers and
communities at the forefront, even if it puts us in the crosshairs of debate.
We
look forward to continuing this dialogue with the USBG membership as ISA
continues to work with the aim of eradicating CKDu. We will continue to
communicate to you as things progress.
Thank
you,
Carla
Palazio
Office
of the Presidency
Compañía
Licorera de Nicaragua
