June 6, 2001
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Page A6
Union Fights to Help Oregon Farm Workers
B y L oboaixe -M iche lle F aust
T n t P o r fLA.sD Oustm ta
Who is responsible for making
the food on your dinner table avail-
able? If it was grown on an Oregon
farm it was likely picked by one o f
100,000 Mexican farm workers in
the state. These farm workers live
in substandard, over-crowded work
camps, are underpaid and are ex-
Legal Sendees
Preventive Legal
Paine Farms and Nature's Fountain
Farms have agreed to pay their farm
workers minimum wage, pay them
overtime and holiday pay, allow
them sick days and breaks, and
“It is going to take a long time to
give farm workers the same rights
that all other workers in this coun­
try have enjoyed for years,” said
Ramirez.
no longer buy food products from
NORPAC. NORP AC continues to
refuse to negotiate with PCUN.
Erick Nickelson, who has worked
at PCUN since 1990, says that many
‘W e don ' t want to con -
DEMN OUR CHILDREN TO
CONTINUE LIVING A LIFE OF
misery ,’— PCUN P resi ­
dent R amon R amirez .
Help & Assistance
Defensive Driving
posed to dangerous pesticides.
Pineros y Campesino Unidos del
Noroeste (PCUN) or Northwest
Treeplanters and Farm workers
United, is the union that helps put
pressure on growers to improve
these conditions.
“PCUN came about because we
said. ‘¡Yabasta! (That’senough!)’
to the living and working condi­
tions,” said PCUN President Ramon
Ramirez. “We had to do it now,
because we don’t want to condemn
our children to continue living a life
o f misery.”
Ramirez, who was one o f the
original founders of PCUN, has been
involved in fighting for farm worker
rights since he was a teenager.
When he was 17 years old, Cesar
Chavez spoke at his high school.
The visit so inspired him that he
has been working full time to help
farm workers ever since.
Since 1985, PCUN has worked to
improve conditions for farm work­
ers through “Collective Bargain­
ing Agreem ents.” These agree­
ments serve as contracts between
the workers and the growers.
Moon Ridge Farms, Thomas
Violations
Comprehensive Wills & Yearly Updates
Debts, Dispute Decisions, Divorce
And more
$26.00 or less per month
For more in fo rm a tio n c a ll
Norman Ross
at
(503) 757-8409
Oregon farm workers hold up flags displaying the symbol of their union.
give just cause when they fire work­
ers. But many other growers still
refuse to enter into the contracts.
Come celebrate!!!
the 1967 Supreme Court decision that overturned all laws preventing
interracial marriages.
June 16-17,2001 in P ortland, OR
Saturday 9:00am-4:00pm
I Free one-day conference open to the public.
I Celebrating Multiracial and Multiethnic lives.
For More Info, please contact: OCMA, Telephone: 503.288.8484
presented by:
oorm
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The living quarters are disgraceful at the labor camps.
Some growers are violently op­
posed to farm workers organizing
with the union. Farm workers have
suffered threats, attack and have
lost their jobs for just
talking with PCUN
organizers.
“The only way to
get growers to nego­
tiate is through pres­
sure,” said Ramirez.
T y p ic a lly th is
“pressure” comes in
the form o f a boy­
co tt. PCUN has
taken the lead in a
boycott ofNORP AC
foods for nine years.
M any universities
nationw ide, along
w ith
S o d ex h o -
Marriot and the Ca­
nadian Labour Con­
gress, have joined the boycott and
growers do all in their power to
keep from negotiating.
“The irony is the growers are
organizing to keep workers from
having an organization to defend
their interests,” he said.
PCUN also has a service center
at their office. They provide trans­
lation services, notarize docu­
ments, help with immigration cases,
workers comp cases, make refer­
rals, and provide English as a Sec­
ond Language classes. In addition,
PCUN founded the Farmworker
Housing Development Corporation
that provides over 100, award-win­
ning housing units. “ I saw that
even though we had moved out o f
poverty and farm work, other
people were just inheriting the same
conditions,” said Rebecca Saldana.
This she says, was what compelled
her to work at PCUN ; she wanted to
“break the cycle.”
Study Says Florida Vote
Penalized Minorities
BxJjoptRj E. P ierre amp
P eter S leyih
T he W ashington P qyi
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4
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Florida ’ s conduct ofthe 2000
p re s id e n tia l e le c tio n w as
marked by“injustice, ineptitude
and inefficiency” that unfairly
penalized minority voters, the
U.S. CommissiononCivil Rights
has concluded in a report that
criticizes top state officials —
particularly Gov. Jeb Bush and
Secretary o f State Katherine
Harris — for allowing dispar­
ate treatment o f voters.
Unequal access to modem
voting equipment and “over-
zealous efforts” to purge state
voter lists most harshly affected
African Americans in the state
that decided the Novem ber
election for President Bush, the
commission declared in a 167-
page final draft report obtained
by The Washington Post. The
inquiry found no “conclusive
evidence” that officials “con­
spired” to disenfranchise mi­
nority and disabled voters.
Fifty-four percent o f votes
rejected during the Florida elec­
tion were cast by black voters,
according to the report, sched­
uled for a commission vote Fri­
day. African Americans ac­
counted for 11 percent o f vot­
ers statewide.
“The disenfranchisem ent
was not isolated or episodic.
State officials failed to fulfill
their duties in a manner that
would prevent this disenfran­
chisement,” said the report, the
product o f a six-month investi­
gation. “Despite the closeness
o f the election, it was wide­
spread voter disenfranchise­
ment and not the dead-heat
contest that was the extraordi­
nary feature in the Florida elec­
tion.” The commission— com­
posed o f four Democrats, three
independents and one Republi­
can — is poised to ask the U.S.
Department o f Justice and the
Florida attorney general’s of­
fice to investigate whether fed­
eral or state civil rights laws
were violated.
The commission is charged
with investigating possible vio­
lations— intentional oruninten-
tional — o f the federal Voting
Rights Act and other civil rights
protections. Advisers to Gov.
Bush and Harris were angered
Tuesday by the report’s early
release. H arris’s spokesman,
David Host, called the leak ‘ ‘both
fraudulent and shameful” be­
cause Harris’s response is not
due u n til later th is w eek.
Florida’s election problems have
been scrutinized since Election
Day. A bipartisan task force
appointed by Gov. Bush con­
cluded that the November elec­
tion was marred by systemic
inconsistencies. That report
cited unreliable voting machines,
improper counting o f absentee
ballots and inaccurate databases
that allowed unregistered vot­
ers to vote while preventing le­
gal voters from casting ballots.
A computer analysis by The
Post showed that the more black
and Democratic a precinct, the
more likely it was to sufferhigh
rates o f invalidated votes.
No inquiry so far has been as
broad as that conducted by the
commission — or as specifi­
cally focused on the rights of
minorities. The commission held
three days o f hearings, inter­
viewed 100 witnesses and re­
viewed 118,000 documents.
I