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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (April 1, 2016)
PAGE 8 | April 1 , 2016 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS Farmworker tour spreads the word about Driscoll’s boycott Left, farmworker union president Ramon Torres and member Lázaro Matamoros march outside a Whole Foods store at 28th and East Burn- side in Portland. Inside, half-pint boxes of Driscoll’s berries sell two for $5; farmworkers in Mexico are paid $5.75 a day. Unions in Washington and Baja Mexico make common cause The leader of an independent farmworker union in Burlington, Washington, is touring the West Coast to promote a boycott of Driscoll’s berries. The union Las Familias Unidas por la Justicia (Families United for Justice) arose in 2013 in response to se- rious labor abuses at Sakuma Brothers Farms. In Northwest Washington’s Skagit Valley, Sakuma Brothers employs about 450 farmworkers to pick its strawberries, blueberries, black- berries, and raspberries. In 2014, the company agreed to pay $850,000 to settle a federal wage and hour lawsuit — reportedly the largest-ever wage settlement in Washington. According to the suit, Sakuma Brothers failed to pay for all hours worked and didn’t give legally-required rest breaks. Sakuma Brothers agreed in the settlement to correct those practices. Familias Unidas also wants the company to recognize the union and negotiate a labor contract with wages of $15 an hour. The boycott was called in 2013 in response to the com- pany’s refusal to do that. Most Sakuma Brothers berries are sold and marketed by Driscoll’s, based in Watsonville, California. Driscoll’s has had se- rious labor problems of its own. Last March, up to 70,000 farm- workers in the San Quintín valley of Baja California Mexico waged intermittent strikes and blocked the region’s main highway to de- mand an eight-hour workday, a doubling of their daily wage to 200 pesos per day [about $11.50], health care and overtime pay, an end to widespread sexual abuse, and legal recognition of their in- dependent union — the Alianza de Organizaciones por la Justicia Social del Valle de San Quintín. Driscoll’s affiliate BerryMex was a primary target of the strike. Laid-off Nabisco workers push Mexican Oreo boycott Highly profitable Nabisco laid off 277 of its Chicago workers March 23, with more layoffs to come. Mondelēz, owner of the Nabisco brand, told the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco and Grain Millers (BCTGM) union last May that it was investing $130 million in a new produc- tion line in Mexico, but would consider Chicago instead if union workers there agreed to $46 million a year in conces- sions. The union refused, and the company moved to shift pro- duction to Mexico. BCTGM has responded with a boycott, and is calling on U.S. consumers to check the labels, and not to buy Nabisco products made in Mexico. To promote that message to labor organizations and commu- nity groups, BCTGM plans to send out “boycott education teams” made up of two or three laid-off workers. They’ll focus on large urban areas around the country, beginning in the Chicago area. In mid-April, one team will start in Washington state and travel south, and an- other will start in Atlanta and travel north. “Nabisco’s plans to lay off American workers, put their jobs in Mexico and then return the products to the United States to sell is the ultimate insult to both the American worker and consumer,” said BCTGM Pres- ident David Durkee in a press statement. BCTGM’s national contract covering 2,000 Nabisco workers expired Feb. 29, 2016. When the two sides last met March 11, BCGTM campaign coordinator Ron Baker says the company proposed to terminate its de- fined benefit pension for all workers — in what it called its “last best and final” offer. They’ll meet again April 7-8. In clashes at the roadblocks, police fired rubber bullets, and dozens of strikers were injured and several hospitalized. Mex- ico’s federal government inter- vened, and in May, brokered a deal with growers that met most of the strikers demands, with the government even chipping in to pay part of farmworkers’ wages. But leaders of the independent Mexican union say employers haven’t complied with the agree- ment. Protests began again this spring, and farmworkers took part in a four-day march to the U.S. border that ended March 20. Familias Unidas president Ra- mon Torres and several support- ers will also arrive at the border April 9 — from the U.S. side — as part of a 28-day 16-city West Coast tour promoting the boy- cott. The tour left Burlington March 17 and had its first stop in Portland March 18-19, followed by Eugene and Medford, Ore- gon. The two unions have a pact that the Driscoll’s boycott will continue until both unions have contracts — and that neither union will reach an agreement without the other. The boycott is backed by the Washington State Labor Council and San Francisco Labor Coun- cil, among other groups. Famil- ias Unidas became an affiliate of the Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO, in 2015. Consumers are asked not to buy products under the Driscoll’s or Sakuma Bros. labels — or Häagen-Dazs berry flavors. Boycott organizers are also tar- geting Whole Foods and Costco and are asking customers to call on those companies to stop sell- ing Driscoll’s berries.
