The video begins with slow, dramatic music.
The words “Grupo Jaremar” flash against a concrete wall, followed by shots of factory equipment and signage surrounded by lush foliage and zooming cars.
A deep male voice announces in Spanish that Grupo Jaremar, a Central American palm oil conglomerate, delivers high-quality products with the customer in mind.
Then, the stories start.
A company executive announces through a megaphone, “We don’t want to be the biggest business in the world. We want to be the biggest business for the world.” A young woman in front of a freshly painted building — electric blue — beams, telling viewers that she has a new house because of Grupo Jaremar.
“Thanks to Jaremar I graduated, and now I work at this great business,” a hard hat-clad worker explains.
The film cuts to a shot of a woman in a hairnet kneading dough and flipping tortillas, who says, “Now we have stable work. We’re the owners of our own business, and we’ve been working for two years. We’ve sustained ourselves thanks to Grupo Jaremar’s donation.”
From providing affordable medical care to fighting hunger to investing in microenterprises, the business’ social responsibility claims are constructed as rapidly as the electric blue house in the video. This, however, is not the whole story.
Continue reading “In Honduras, Labor Rights are Human Rights”
