SEATTLE — “We’ve come very far and we are not going to stop. A lot of us want a union,” Joceline Castillo, a worker at Ostrom Mushroom Farms, told a rally of 60 other mushroom workers and supporters here Nov. 20. “We are fighting to stop the retaliation, harassment and intimidation.” Some 40 workers came from Sunnyside, where Ostrom is located. They’re seeking to organize into the United Farm Workers union.
The rally was held outside the Metropolitan Market. “We appreciate the support of those here and those who buy the mushrooms so we can win a union,” said Daniel Leon, an Ostrom worker and a leader of the union workers’ committee, which has led actions pushing back bosses’ demands for higher picking quotas and company harassment.
The Washington State attorney general filed a lawsuit against Ostrom in August after an investigation found the company had systematically fired 80% of its employees, mostly women, and replaced them with “guest workers” with H-2A visas.
“They say there are not enough workers locally, but this isn’t true,” José Martinez, a union committee member and worker at the plant, told the Militant earlier this year. The company is attempting to divide the workers, he said, adding that he “has nothing against the visa workers, they are just like us.”