After months of harassment by Guatemala's Communist-led unions and Communist-coddling government, the United Fruit Co. faced a life-or-death showdown. Tiquisate, the company's 26,100-acre Pacific-coast banana plantation, was scheduled to be auctioned off to meet the banana workers' claims for back wages. But a hurried compromise agreement between the company and the workers last week staved off the sale; for the present, Guatemala's biggest employer could stay in business.
Last August the Red-led Guatemalan General Labor Confederation (C.G.T.G.) prodded the plantation workers, already well paid by Guatemalan standards, into demanding big pay boosts. While union and company representatives were wrangling, a...
