Vol. 77/No. 44      December 9, 2013

The program — titled “Unify the Working Class: What Has Been Gained in Recent Struggles by Farm Workers, Machinists and Teamsters” — featured presentations by Cliff LaPlant, chief shop steward for Machinists Local 79 at the Belshaw Adamatic plant in Auburn; Ramón Torres, president of Familias Unidas por la Justicia, a farmworkers union at Sakuma Brothers Farms berry fields in Burlington; and Sydney Coe, a member of Teamsters Local 117, which carried out a three-month strike against Davis Wire in Kent last year.

Forty-five people attended the event, which included a dinner prior to the program and raised money for the Socialist Workers Party and Familias Unidas por la Justicia.

“The one place you could find accurate information on the three struggles represented on the panel tonight was the Militant,” said John Naubert of the Socialist Workers Party, in introducing the speakers. “And getting out the truth through its pages helped these fighters find each other.”

“We’ve done it!” said LaPlant to applause, referring to the victory by the 63 members of Local 79 who waged a six-month strike that ended Oct. 2 with ratification of a contract that met most of the union’s demands.

“We got support from the Militant and their group, which led us to other supporters like the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. It was this solidarity that helped us win our strike,” LaPlant said. He explained how Belshaw Adamatic, which manufactures bakery equipment, tried to ship out a container during the strike and how members of the ILWU in Tacoma prevented it from being loaded. “I want to thank the ILWU, the Teamsters union and others who also supported us,” he said.

“People ask us, how did we do it after the company initially fired most of us during the strike,” said LaPlant. “Our workforce is multinational with Hispanics, Pacific Islanders, Filipinos, African-Americans, Asians and whites. We had a negotiating committee of myself, a Hispanic woman and a Vietnamese worker. We told the truth and kept all the workers informed. We said 63 went out and we won’t go back until all 63 were accepted back by the company.”

“As a result of the strike we have more solidarity with each other now than we had at any time during the 35 years I had been working at the plant. I always say there are two times when you know who your friends are — when you pack up and move and when you are on strike. So having been on strike now I know who my friends are!”

“I met Ramón [Torres] and others when I attended their rally and I toured their camp housing,” said LaPlant, who spoke at a rally of the berry pickers in September. “I was impressed that these workers fought on their own without any other union to back them up.” Turning to Torres he said, “If I had a hat on I would take it off to you and your struggle.”

Farmworkers form union

Torres introduced seven other farmworkers, spouses, and members of the Community to Community support group in Bellingham who came to the forum. “I would also like to thank those on the stage here who have supported our struggle,” he said.

Torres explained how the fight for a union and a contract at Sakuma Farms began to develop in July after a worker was fired for complaining to the company that the workers were being shorted on their pay. After 250 workers marched to the company offices demanding his reinstatement, the company backed down. Workers then organized a series of six off-and-on strikes through the end of the season in October.

Torres said the workers elected a leadership committee of 11 with 14 demands for a contract. These included a raise in pay, medical insurance, better living conditions in the company housing camps and reimbursement for travel to and from California, where many of the workers lived off season.

He said the company could well afford to meet these demands because they flew in replacement workers from Mexico under the U.S. government’s H2A program, paid for their travel, paid these workers $12 an hour and gave them new facilities to live in. “We get the used things, old mattresses, housing with tin roofs that leak and no stoves or refrigerators.”

Torres said that the company uses chemicals that are harmful for both the workers and consumers. “We want the company to put on the packages what chemicals are being used and provide medical aid to workers who get sick from exposure,” he said.

Torres said the farmworkers have called a boycott of Sakuma Farms products — raspberries, blackberries and blueberries — until the contract is secured.

Davis Wire strike

“We struck for better pay, working conditions, medical insurance, safety and lunch breaks. We won a lunchroom and lunch breaks, which we didn’t have before. We still have unsafe conditions with dangerous machines, including machinery that is run without safety covers. So now we use the safety committee and we tell the bosses ‘if the machine is unsafe we won’t run it until it is fixed,’” he said.

“I went to the Belshaw Adamatic picket lines and I went up to support the berry pickers in their fight. I saw their living conditions and this is unacceptable for the workers and their families. I did this because others gave me solidarity when I was on strike. The Militant came down to our strike, the Tacoma News Tribune came down to our strike, the ILWU came down to our strike, nurses from Arizona came to our strike and many more.

Coe said he had also learned about and become a supporter of the Cuban Five in the course of the struggle. He read part of a statement he had sent to the Five on the occasion of René González’s return to Cuba in May: “Every working-class person should support the Cuban Five because we are all the Cuban Five. We are all labeled and paying for something we didn’t do.”

“What connects all these struggles I am talking about?” said Coe. “The need to never stop fighting and to stand together. Without solidarity, we have nothing. Keep your eyes on the prize and stand together and fight to the end.”

“Often we hear it said that the labor movement is weak,” said Mary Martin of the Socialist Workers Party, who co-chaired the meeting with Naubert. “But no one listening to the fighters tonight on this panel would conclude that labor is weak. The answer is what we have heard here tonight. Rely on ourselves and each other, because we are the union. The farmworkers in Burlington did not wait for anything — they organized themselves.

“No one would conclude that the Machinists at Boeing who just rejected a concession contract 2-1 are weak,” she continued. “What we see too often is that union memberships don’t yet have the leadership that they need and deserve.”

“Ultimately, the working class needs to make a revolution in this country to take power away from the capitalist class,” said Martin. “This is what the working people of Cuba did when they overthrew the U.S.-backed dictatorship and set out to transform society from one based on the dog-eat-dog values of capitalism to one based on solidarity and meeting needs of the vast majority. This is something the U.S. government has never forgiven the Cuban people for and why the Cuban Five, products of that revolution, were locked up. Every fight of our class is part of the road to taking power. If this sounds right to you, join with the Socialist Worker Party.”

Farmworkers, shipyard workers and others participated in a lively discussion following the presentations.

Tomas Madrigal, who works with Community to Community in Bellingham, explained that he is a member of United Auto Workers Local 2865, which organizes teaching assistants at the University of California at Santa Barbara. “We will be going on strike on Nov. 20 to support facilities workers organized by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. I applaud the workers from Mexico who bring their own struggles here and are part of the fight in the U.S.,” he said.

Another participant, Patti Ford, asked Torres how he came to be involved in the struggle.

“At first, I thought the indigenous workers, who mostly came from Oaxaca in Mexico, were different than me, that they didn’t understand what was going on with the job and the company,” Torres said. “But as I worked with them I saw that our interests are the same. I was fired Sept. 11 and Sakuma Farms has a restraining order for me to stay off their property. I could leave and take my wife and daughter and go back to California, but I am staying to continue the fight.”

In his final remarks Cliff LaPlant said that in spite of discouragement from IAM officials on the possibilities for solidarity from other unions, he got tremendous help from the ILWU and the Teamsters. “We are the union,” he said, “and we decided to get the solidarity we needed. Without the help of these other unions we would not have won.”

“I think the Boeing workers did the same thing we did,” LaPlant said when a participant asked what he thought about the recent rejection of the Boeing contract. “They went against the pressure to take a lousy contract offer. Go Machinists!”

Melinda LaPlant, a part-time worker at a local retail store, commented after the program, “Everyone leads their personal lives and has problems, but when you see people in struggle you can put those things behind you.”