BY EMILY FITZSIMMONS
YAKIMA, Washington - A crowd of more than 500 apple packers and their supporters marched through downtown Yakima April 20 in support of their union organizing drive. The lead banner, carried by a contingent of Mexican and Chicano youth said, "Justice for Washington Apple Workers" in both English and Spanish.

Contingents of farmworkers, youth, and Teamster union members were prominent. Students from five different chapters of MEChA, a Chicano student organization, marched together.

The action was part of a campaign by fruit warehouse workers and the Teamsters union to organize fruit-packing warehouses in the Yakima and Wenatchee valleys. Apples are a major business in this state, employing 15,000 warehouse workers, two-thirds of whom are Mexican. Average wages among packers are only $11,000 a year, and much less for migrant workers.

The packers are seeking better wages and benefits, and an end to arbitrary firings and abusive treatment by management. They are also fighting the companies' threats to use immigration cops against them.

Ana María Guzmán, speaking at the post-march rally, described how she had worked first in the fields and then in the warehouse for 20 years. Currently employed by Washington Fruit, she said, "The racism, discrimination, and abuse of all workers drove me to want to organize a union. We want to see change and it has to come from us, not the company. We have the right to organize, documented or undocumented."

Some of the demonstrators had also marched in Watsonville, California, the previous week in support of the United Farm Workers (UFW) organizing campaign among strawberry workers there, and were inspired by the 25,000- strong action.

Jesús Linares, a farm worker at the Chateau Ste. Michele vineyard, went there with a busload from Yakima. "Things are changing fast and the struggle of the apple packers here is helping to unite people," he said. Workers at Chateau Ste. Michele hold the only UFW contract in the state of Washington.

The rally following the march was standing-room only in a school auditorium. Five warehouse workers active in the organizing drive addressed the crowd. Speakers also included local religious figures, officials of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Washington State AFL-CIO, United Farm Workers, and Teamsters union.

The previous week, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled that Stemilt, Inc., the largest apple packer and shipper in the state, had violated workers' right to organize. It ordered the company to pay over $21,000 in back wages to 14 workers who had been laid off.

Stemilt was also ordered to reinstate Genaro Morales, a worker the company had fired twice for his union organizing activity. Morales' return to work was featured in an April 16 front page article in a Yakima Valley daily, the Wenatchee World, headlined, "Justice Has Been Done."

A highlight of the rally was the introduction of Morales. After loud applause and chants of "Sí, se puede!" (Yes, it can be done), he explained, "I wasn't sure if the Teamsters would get my job back, but I kept fighting because it was the right thing to do. For those undecided about the power of the union, look at me - fired twice, and I'm back. We can stand up now, or lay down and play dead."

Emily Fitzsimmons is a member of the International Association of Machinists in Seattle.  
 
 
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