—ON THE PICKET LINE—

Maggie Trowe, Editor

 

Wash. berry pickers demand union contract at Sakuma Bros.

BURLINGTON, Wash. — Some 300 supporters of the independent farmworkers union Familias Unidas por la Justicia marched to the Sakuma Brothers Farms offices here July 11 demanding a union contract. The march marked the third anniversary of a walkout by berry pickers that led to the union’s formation. Around a third of the marchers were farmworkers and their families, who joined as they got off work in the fields.

In early June over 120 strawberry pickers walked out of Sakuma’s fields for a day, winning a raise from 20 cents a pound to 24 cents, but workers say that’s still not enough.

On July 8 Sakuma Farms announced to the press that they will meet with Familias Unidas to discuss holding a union election. Sakuma Bros. CEO Danny Weeden said in a press release that “just because FUJ is claiming to represent employees doesn’t mean it’s true.”

“We have what we need, the support of workers and the support of many others,” Ramón Torres, president of Familias Unidas, said at the July 11 protest.

Torres said that the union would continue to back a boycott of Driscoll’s, a big agribusiness corporation that contracts with capitalist farmers in the San Quintin Valley of Baja California, Mexico; in California; and Washington. Workers in Mexico are also waging a fight for union recognition. Driscoll’s distributes berries from Sakuma Brothers. “We want a just contract for both unions,” Torres said.

More information on Familias Unidas can be found at www.boycottsakumaberries.com.

— Clay Dennison