GUATEMALA: The Reds Lose a Round

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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 hurricane battered the plantation. Determined to invest no more capital to clean up the mess until the labor dispute was settled, the company laid off 4,000 banana workers and let Tiquisate stand idle. Last month, acting on a labor-court ruling that the workers were entitled to their regular wages despite the layoff, the government ordered Tiquisate's seizure and sale.

Less than 24 hours before the sale was to begin, company officials decided to make one last try for an agreement with the union. At that juncture, the union's non-Communist leader, Arcadio Chévez, decided that it was time to buck the Red bosses of the C.G.T.G. A seasoned opportunist who had worked with the Reds on & off, Chévez saw a chance to win the banana workers' gratitude by arranging a settlement. Result: the workers agreed to accept current wage levels for three years in return for a company promise to pay off the $650,000 back-wages claim.