BY JASON VERGARA
KING CITY, California - More than 700 workers at Basic
Vegetable Co., members of Teamsters Local 890, went on
strike July 7 and are maintaining a 24-hour picket line at
both the production facility and at the warehouse. Workers
at the plant produce onion and garlic powder.
The initial vote to strike was 555 in favor to 2 against. A second strike ballot was 626 in favor and 10 against. No strikers have crossed the picket line. Basic Vegetable has arranged for a contracting company to bus scabs in and out of the plant every day from Avenal - a two-hour drive away. Avenal is in California's Central Valley, which has high unemployment due to a devastating freeze last winter. Strikers estimate that there are around 150 replacement workers and up to 150 salary workers crossing the picket line.
The strike was called when workers refused to accept further concessions in their new contract. "We hope they settle the strike soon and offer us a decent contract. The company wants to get rid of benefits and we want more," said one striker to Militant correspondents who visited the picket lines August 22.
A striker who has worked at Basic for 25 years explained that the company has been taking away a little in every contract, but now they want to take away a lot all at once.
"More than anything, this strike is about dignity. Many people have worked here for years and given their lives to this company," said another worker on the picket line.
Another striker said, "This struggle is important for us and our families and also the community and other workers."
Farm workers and members of the United Farm Workers union often join the picket lines, especially on the weekends. The majority of workers at Basic Vegetable are Mexican, and many strikers said that if they didn't work here they would be working in the fields.
Fritz Conle, a union representative of Teamsters Local 890, estimates that since the strike began the raw material intake into the plant has been around 60 percent, but Basic is only able to produce a third of the normal output. According to strikers, the company's most recent contract offer is worse than the original one they voted down.
Basic is proposing to reduce the work week by two and a half hours, which would reduce workers' pay by approximately $1,800 per year. It also proposes to freeze wages for the next three years and to get rid of the eight- hour-a-day pay guarantee. The bosses want to be able to select crew leaders based on "merit" rather than seniority.
Further, Basic wants to eliminate jobs such as grounds work, custodian jobs, and garbage truck drivers and contract them out. The company wants to replace the present pension plan with a new 401k plan, and cut the $1.25 per hour it presently puts aside to 42 cents.
Finally, Basic proposes that a $20 "medical co-pay" be taken from worker's paycheck every month, allegedly to recoup losses due to the strike.
Pro-company thugs attack strikers
"In King City the police are charging strikers with
terrorist threats. There has been a lot of harassment with
outrageous charges and frame-ups," Conle said.
On August 18 eight strikers went to Avenal, to handbill replacement workers in order to explain why they are on strike and try to convince them not to cross the picket line. As the scabs were being loaded on the bus, a supervisor organized 30 of them to beat up the strikers. Police have arrested no one, claiming it is the same as a domestic violence case - they will not make any arrests unless they witness the actual beating.
Basic workers are standing strong. On August 15, Teamsters Local 890 organized a march through the streets of King City in which union members say 4,000 supporters participated. A large contingent from the United Farm Workers took part. Other unions from around the state joined the march, including different Teamsters locals, members of the Service Employees International Union, plumbers, hotel and restaurant workers, electrical workers, and carpenters.
At a rally before the march, California AFL-CIO leader Art Polasky said that this strike is currently the biggest for the Teamsters union in North America and the largest in the state.
On August 22 strikers gave leaflets out to people at the King City Fair in the center of town to win support.
Jason Vergara is a member of the Young Socialists. Deborah Liatos, a member of the United Food and Commercial Workers and Larry Lane, member of the International Association of Machinists, contributed to this article.