When Chiquita BrandsInternational announced thecompany was returning to NewOrleans after a nearly 40-yearhiatus, the move wascelebrated as a big win by boththe maritime industry and thelocal community.

And the memories startedflowing…

Chiquita announced it would be relocatingits shipping operations from the Port ofGulfport to New Orleans at a May 14press conference held at Port of NewOrleans headquarters on the Thalia StreetWharf — the same wharf where dockworkers discharged bananas from UnitedFruit vessels for the better part of acentury.

Gov. Bobby Jindal was joined by ChiquitaBrands International Inc. Senior VicePresident Mario Pacheco, Mayor MitchLandrieu, Port of New Orleans Board ofCommissioners, Port President and CEOGary LaGrange and other elected andindustry leaders for the announcement.

Kenneth Crier, President of the International Longshoremen’s Association Local 3000, gathered a handful ofretired dock workers and banana workers for a visit to the Port of New Orleans headquarters on the ThaliaStreet Wharf for old time’s sake. From left: Chris Hammond, Financial Officer for the ILA Local 3000;Kenneth Crier; Wesley Samuels; Glenn Alfred; Joe McSwain; and David Browder.

Retired longshoremen, who started working the docks in the 1950s and 1960s sit along the Mississippi Riverrecalling stories of carrying stalks of bananas up from the ship’s hole to the conveyor belt on the wharf. Fromleft, by their dock worker nicknames: “Bones” (Glenn Alfred), “Baton Rouge” (Wesley Samuels), “Little Dave”(David Browder), and “The Big Hands Man” (Joe McSwain).

ILA Local 3000 PresidentKenneth Crier shows off a

badge stamped with thewords “Banana Worker ofNew Orleans. Reg. 1954.”

It belonged to his father,Eddie “Hercules” Crier, a

retired longshoreman whoworked at the Port of New

Orleans from 1954 to 1993.

Chiquita Brands Senior Vice President Mario Pacheco talks to Kenneth Crier, President of the ILA Local3000, and Robert Landry, Port of New Orleans Chief Commercial Officer at the press conferenceannouncing Chiquita’s return to New Orleans. Pacheco was moved when Crier showed him the originalbanana workers badge from 1954 that belonged to his father, Eddie Crier.

For most of the 19th century, the banana trade, led by Chiquita (formerly United Fruit and United Brands), waseminent along the riverfront and in the economy of New Orleans. This scene at Erato Street Wharf offers aglimpse of United Fruit’s operations at the Port of New Orleans in the early 1900s.

Photos by Tracie Morris Schaefer and Port of New Orleans Archives.