The protesters marched a mile and a half to Sakuma Brothers berry farm, where many of the workers have been employed for years. Only 10 days before the march, 200 workers walked out when Sakuma tried to separate them into groups of 10 and have them pick in 15-minute intervals. The union said this was an attempt to divide the workers and a reprisal against the union.
The marchers chanted, “Wage theft is not OK, Sakuma has to pay!” The union has exposed Sakuma for wage theft, poverty wages, racist and sexist harassment, among other abuses. Familias Unidas upholds the demand for a $15-an-hour wage and wears it on their shirts. Some of the unions on the march were the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, the Steelworkers, Food and Commercial Workers and also Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste from Oregon. Community to Community and religious groups also marched.
The rally was held in front of Sakuma’s farm and nearby giant processor house, across from farmworkers’ housing.
Speaking at the rally were Familias Unidas President Ramon Torres and Vice President Filemon Pineda. Jeff Johnson, of the Washington State Labor Council, representing 400,000 workers, also spoke, as did President Ramon Rodriguez of PCUN, representing 6,500 mostly Indigenous farmworkers in Oregon. A PCUN woman worker addressed the crowd in Mixteco.
Familias Unidas and supporters in the labor movement are carrying out an active boycott of Driscoll’s, a global distributor and the main distributor of Sakuma berries.
Photo: Farmworkers and labor supporters picket Sakuma.
Credit: Washington State Labor Council
We call upon the workers of the world to a week of solidarity events with…
The following statement was posted on Samidoun Palestinian Political Prisoners Network on April 25, 2024. …
Albany, New York Around 200 students, faculty, and activists from a variety of State University…
The Rome Forum crowned two days of intense work on April 20-21, 2024, with the…
By Andrew Johnson An anti-imperialist Palestine Congress “against German complicity in the genocide in Gaza”…
The following article first appeared on the Resistance News Network, April 22. In two days,…