The Militant (logo)  

Vol. 79/No. 15      April 27, 2015

 
Mexican farmworkers win
15% raise, will ‘keep fighting’
 
BY SETH GALINSKY  
“We will keep fighting until we win a labor agreement that guarantees our rights,” Fidel Sánchez, a leader of a farmworkers strike in the San Quintín valley of Baja California, Mexico, said by phone April 4, after many farmworkers returned to work “under protest.”

The workers pick strawberries, tomatoes, and other fruits and vegetables.

Led by the Alliance of National, State and Municipal Organizations for Social Justice, 17,000 farmworkers went on strike against 12 companies March 17 to demand higher wages, better work conditions and an end to sexual harassment by the bosses.

Farmworkers blocking several highways early in the strike were attacked by police with rubber bullets and teargas, and more than 200 were arrested. Most were released, but 11 are still in jail, Sánchez said.

Workers are paid piece rate, earning between 100 and 125 pesos a day ($6.70-$8.35). They demanded a minimum wage of 300 pesos a day. The agribusiness companies offered a 15 percent pay increase.

“Fifteen percent solves very little,” Sánchez said. “We work all year round. We don’t know what a vacation is. In violation of labor laws, we don’t get paid holidays.”

Sánchez, like several other leaders of the struggle, got experience in organizing while working in the U.S. He was involved in a fight to raise the piece rate on tomatoes in Florida in 1997-98.

Hundreds of farmworkers from San Quintín were joined by supporters in Tijuana for a march and rally there March 29, as part of a caravan that traveled throughout Baja California to win solidarity. They marched to Friendship Park along the border where they were met by a rally on the U.S. side that included members of the United Farm Workers, the Indigenous Front of Binational Organizations and San Diego-based Union del Barrio.

“We couldn’t cross the border,” Sánchez said. “But we each had sound systems. When we spoke, they turned off their sound and listened. When they spoke, we did the same.”

“The 15 percent increase they’ve offered is not enough but with our strike — the first in 14 years — we’ve proven they can pay more,” Fermín Salazar, another strike leader, said April 6.
 
 
Related articles:
Boston march of 3,000 kicks off April 15 actions for $15 and a union
Oil workers strike for safety continues at five refineries
On the Picket Line
 
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home