BY FLOYD FOWLER AND MIKE ITALIE
QUINCY, Florida - Dozens of spirited Quincy Farm workers and their families, waving United Farm Workers (UFW) banners and a large Mexican flag in the blazing afternoon sun, marched with hundreds of supporters to press their fight for a union. The June 28 march and rally in support of mushroom workers at Quincy Farms was organized by the UFW and backed by the AFL-CIO and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

A large number of the 600 Quincy Farms workers have signed union authorization cards. The workforce is divided roughly in half between pickers, who are largely immigrants from Mexico and El Salvador, and packers, most of whom are African-Americans. Pickers earn $1.42 per 20-pound box, and packers with over 10 years seniority receive only $5.50 per hour. One picker, Ezequias, described how "workers often fall while picking mushrooms in the damp, dark conditions. I know of workers who didn't report injuries because they were afraid."

In March 1996, Quincy Farms fired 85 workers in an attempt to break their struggle.

As the June 28 rally was underway, company radio ads claimed that the "workers are happy" and that people in town should not listen to the "outsiders" promoting the union. Unionists from Atlanta, New Orleans, Tampa, Gainsville, and other cities came to show their support. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) filled a bus from New York and the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists filled another from St. Louis. Several unionists from an International Association of Machinists local that won a strike in 1995 against the Miller Company Brewery in Albany, Georgia, came, as one member explained, "because we understand their battle, and to show our solidarity."

Groups of students from campuses in Tallahassee and Gainsville, Florida, decided to come to Quincy after participating in the march in solidarity with newspaper workers in Detroit on June 21. Quincy Farms workers were glad to accept a poster signed by dozens of members of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE) at Wilen Manufacturing in Atlanta. The sign supporting the farm workers was written in English, Spanish, Vietnamese, Creole, and Amharic.

UFW president Arturo Rodríguez reported on the union- initiated boycott of Prime Label mushrooms, which is being promoted by the AFL-CIO. Other speakers at the rallies that preceded and followed the march included Rev. Joseph Lowery, national president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference; Linda Chavez-Thompson, AFL-CIO executive vice president; and representatives of Florida National Organization for Women and the Florida NAACP State Conference.

One of the fired workers, Juana, received loud applause from her co-workers when she stepped to the microphone. "Last year I was fired for leading a lunchtime demonstration. I want to ask you to keep on giving us support until we get a union contract!"

Mike Italie is a member of UNITE in Atlanta.  
 
 
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