Union members of Familias Unidas por la Justicia (FUJ), picking berries for Sakuma Brothers Berry Farms are asking the general public and consumers to continue boycotting berries sold under the Driscoll label. Driscoll’s is the major buyer of Sakuma berries, and the largest berry distributor in the world. After the workers formed a union Driscoll’s increased their purchasing from the Sakuma berry farm and made public statements of their commitment to support Sakuma Farms.
It has been three years since the farm workers first walked out on strike on July 11, 2013, this has become an ongoing historic farm labor dispute in the Pacific Northwest. This labor conflict continues as the union activity grows stronger in the berry fields of Sakuma Brothers Farm, an industrial berry producer, the largest in Whatcom and Skagit Counties. FUJ, a union of over 450 indigenous Mixteco and Triqui migrant farm workers continue to fight for higher wages, job stability, respectful and safe working conditions through the negotiation of a collective bargaining agreement.
This year there have been four work stoppages between early July and end of August due to the company touted “new” wage scale. This “new” pay scale is not new at all – it is a reintroduction of the same old piece rate wage scale, which the workers claim has been used for decades as a wage theft system and that actually is lowering wages.
In 2013 the minimum wage at Sakuma Farms was $12 an hour,
in 2014 the minimum was $11.84 an hour, these hourly wages were based on the federally mandated minimum wage for guest workers, which the company was trying to bring in to replace the 450+ union workers and failed.
In 2015 the minimum is $10 an hour.
The wage scale presented to the workers says that a worker will earn a $10hr. minimum wage, but must pick 50lbs to earn the minimum; from the beginning of the season this production quota has been an ongoing issue. In their PR statements the company claimed workers were earning up to $40 an hour! This statement angered the farm workers who say, “not true” to earn $40 an hour a worker would have to pick over 100 lbs. per hour, which based on the quality and quantity of berries, is not humanly possible. The workers refused to work at this inhumane pace, and the work stoppages have been to renegotiate in the fields these production standards, almost on a weekly basis. Company management representatives refuse to recognize the union and negotiate, the only mechanism the workers have is union power, worker unity and work stoppages.
The latest work stoppage produced a victory for the union, but only after a social media campaign was launched asking consumers to e-mail and call Driscoll’s and Sakuma Farms management to negotiate with the union. After Union supporters showed up in the fields to support the worker stoppage did Sakuma Farms management then met with the workers for over 2 hours in the berry fields and negotiated on the issues the workers brought forth. This showed the Union leadership that the boycott is having an impact.
The newest settlement that came out of the negotiation between the union and management produced the following gains for the workers:
- The production quota to earn $10/hour was lowered from the company’s demand of 22 ½ lbs. to 16 ½ lbs.
- The management agreed to fire an abusive supervisor named Mario who was harassing many farm workers into inhumane speed-ups to meet the production quotas; and many women had also been complaining that he had been inappropriately touching them.
The fight is not over. Familias Unidas por la Justicia asks that consumers continue to boycott Driscoll Berries until Sakuma Berry Farms negotiates and signs a legally binding collective bargaining agreement with the union.
