After 24 days of an indefinite strike at banana plantations in Bocas del Toro, Chiquita Panama and Ilara Holding announced on Thursday, May 22, the termination of all their daily workers.

According to a company statement, the decision followed the “unjustified abandonment of work at our plantations and operational centers since April 28, which continues to this date.”

Earlier this month, the company had suspended operations entirely at two other plantations.

The workers began the strike in protest of recent reforms to Law 45 and Law 402 regarding the Social Security Fund. Earlier this week, the Labor Court of the Fifth Section of Changuinola, Bocas del Toro, declared the strike illegal.

Chiquita’s decision was announced following a meeting between Francisco Smith, secretary general of the Banana, Agricultural, and Related Industries Workers Union (Sitraibana), and the Minister of Labor and Workforce Development, Jackeline Muñoz, along with the Minister of Commerce and Industry, Julio Moltó.

The dismissals could affect around 5,000 people in Changuinola, according to local media reports.

Chiquita Panama said all affected workers will receive their corresponding severance pay in accordance with legal requirements.

Since the beginning of the strike, Chiquita Panama and Ilara Holding had urged employees to return to the plantations to minimize the impact on crops—not only in terms of losses of banana boxes intended for export (by May 7, 900,000 boxes had already been lost), but also because each day without harvesting represented an irrecoverable loss of fruit due to its perishable nature.

“As of today, there have been 24 days of complete abandonment of our plantations, which has caused losses exceeding at least $75 million and irreversible damage to production,” Chiquita Panama said.