Editing United Fruit Company (section)

====Labor unionization====
From 1900 to 1945, the power and economic hegemony allotted to the American multinational corporations by host countries was designed to bring nations such as Honduras out of foreign debt and economic turmoil all the while decreasing the expenses of production, increasing the levels of efficiency and profit, and thriving in a tariff-free economic system. However, the growing demand for bananas surpassed the supply because of challenges such as invasive fruit diseases (Panama, sigtaoka, and moko) plus human illnesses from extreme working conditions (chemical toxicity and communicable diseases).<ref name=":24"/>

Laborers began to organize, protest, and expose the conditions in what they were suffering from at the location of their division. Small-scale fruit producers would also join the opposition to regain equality in the market economy and push for the redistribution of the taken communal lands sold to American multinational corporations. Referencing to the Honduran administrations from 1945 to 1954, business historian Marcelo Bucheli interpreted their acts of collusion and stated "The dictators helped United Fruit's business by creating a system with little or no social reform, and in return United Fruit helped them remain in power".<ref name=":32"/> As the rise of dictatorship flourished under [[Tiburcio Carías Andino]]'s national administration (1933–1949) and prevailed for 16 years until it was passed onto nationalist President [[Juan Manuel Gálvez]] (a former lawyer for the United Fruit Company).

The [[General Strike of 1954]] in Tela, Honduras was largest organized labor opposition against the United Fruit company. However, it did involve the laborers from United Fruit, Standard Fruit, along with industrial workers from San Pedro Sula. Honduran laborers were demanding fair pay, economic rights, checked national authority, and eradication of imperialist capitalism.<ref name=":13"/> The total number of protesters was estimated at greater than 40,000.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Brett|first=Edward T.|date=2009|title=International Encyclopedia of Protest and Revolution|url=http://www.blackwellreference.com/public/tocnode?id=g9781405184649_yr2010_chunk_g9781405184649720|journal=Honduran General Strike of 1954|via=Blackwell Reference Online|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110816082233/http://www.blackwellreference.com/public/tocnode?id=g9781405184649_yr2010_chunk_g9781405184649720|archive-date=2011-08-16}}</ref> On the 69th day, an agreement was made between United Fruit and the mass of protesters leading to the end of the General Strike. Under the administration of Galvez (1949–1954) strides were taken to put into effect the negotiated improvements of workers' rights. Honduran laborers gained the right for shorter workdays, paid holidays, limited employee responsibility for injuries, the improvement of employment regulation over women and children, and the legalization of unionization. In the summer of 1954 the strike ended, yet the demand for economic nationalism and social reform was just beginning to gain even more momentum going into the 1960s–1970s.