A-Infos (en) Strawberry's Bitter Taste

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V. Strawberry's Bitter Taste
(By Natacha DAVID)
\
Unionists return to the fields to unearth the origins of the organised
labour struggle.

Brussels, May 6, 1998 (ICFTU OnLine): Several kilometers from the
opulence that characterises Silicon Valley, strawberry fields stretch as

far as the eye can see. Given the fruit's delicacy, mechanised forms of
gathering are entirely out of the question. And in its stead, one
witnesses the arched backs of seasonal and non-seasonal workers, for the

most part of Mexican origin, who are forced to work 12 hours a day for
paltry wages without medical insurance, or job security, lacking
adequate sanitary or housing facilities and often subject to forms of
sexual harassment. It is these workers who, strawberry by strawberry,
gather California's renowned "red gold."

In the US, the strawberry industry brings in revenues of some $650
million a year and employs approximately 20,000 people.  Some 80 per
cent of all US strawberries come from California - which itself accounts

for 10 per cent of the world's annual supply.  The average labour costs,

in the US, for gathering strawberries lies between $8,000 and $8,500 per

annum, for an approximate total of six months of work.  This meagre
salary, situated well below the poverty line, has remained so for some
20 years now, ever since national production doubled.  For every US
dollar spent by the consumer on strawberries, nine cents goes to the
gatherer, 42 cents to the cultivator, 15 cents to the
transportation-refrigeration-packaging process and 34 cents to the
distributor.1

In Sacramento and Los Angeles, lobbying groups for the strawberry
industry have retaliated against unions' accusations of poor working
conditions, by claiming they are misleading the public. "They have
access to drinking water and sanitary facilities, and their salary
enables them to live," insists Gary Caloroso, of the Strawberry Workers
and Farmers Alliance, adding that "these workers wouldn't come back to
work each day if they didn't want to."

The reality of the situation isn't quite as banal. Even for a mere $6 an

hour, seasonal workers - for the most part illegal immigrants and
non-English speaking - often have little other choice. Their average
life expectancy, 49 years, says much about their current living and
working conditions. Their sad state of health has indeed begun to affect

the strawberry crop. Thus, US health officials recently discovered, in
school kitchens, frozen strawberries contaminated with hepatitis
transmitted through the gatherers.2

Back problems are commonplace, given the gatherers need to bend down to
pick strawberries, and often force workers to leave after just a few
years of work. Most seasonal workers are under 30, many not even 20
years old.  It is also nigh on impossible for them to work days that
apparently never end:  the agricultural firm Gargiulo, a unit of
chemical giant Monsanto, illegally obliged thousands of seasonal
strawberry workers to work the equivalent of $2 million in unpaid
overtime - a complaint was filed with the federal court in San Jose in
February 1997.

These workers were even obliged to pay for their own protective
material, namely special gloves, in clear violation of Californian law.
And as for housing?  Seasonal workers are obliged to either sleep in
cars or overcrowded lodgings.
The UFW's Struggle

Today, there are over two million agricultural workers in the US. Most
of them are Mexican immigrants, unaffiliated with any union. In order to

protect and help them, the United Farm Workers, or UFW3, union - which,
under its founder Cesar Chavez, organised California's vineyard workers
in the 60s - has managed to place these field workers at the epicenter
of labour and social movements throughout the US.

For US labour unions, this offensive into the domestic agricultural
sector is representative of a larger push to reestablish their position
throughout America. And the choice to defend this specific sector is
symbolic in itself. To defend California's seasonal workers entails the
protection of the poor, the excluded and a new largely immigrant
proletariat, quite different from U.S. labour unions' habitual targets.

In 1993, the UFW had 21,000 members. Today, they number over 26,000,
thanks largely to the efforts of the UFW's Secretary-General Arturo
Rodriguez. After the successes of organising rose gatherers and mushroom

pickers, Mr. Rodriguez turned his attention, in 1995, to the strawberry
sector, backed by the powerful teamsters and the US national trade union

centre, the AFL-CIO.

In 1989, 1994 and 1995, strawberry workers secretly voted in favor of
organising UFW-style unions. However, those who supported the creation
of said unions often found themselves subsequently jobless.

Intimidation, threats of retaliation and violence followed, and in June
1996, two militant UFW members were beaten by handymen hired by
strawberry producers unsympathetic to the idea of organised labour in
their sector.

Nonetheless, the UFW persisted, pushing its message on two fronts: in
the field, literally, to give seasonal workers confidence and convince
them of the union's benefits, and throughout the media and larger cities

to alert the public to the cause of the strawberry workers, and thus
gain their support.

On the field, the workers' fears had to be allayed by explaining that
the Californian strawberry industry wasn't going to pick up and relocate

somewhere else. While salaries are some ten times lower in Mexico, the
strawberry season lasts only two months, to California's six, and
increased strawberries shipments from the south would be subject to
damage from the trip up north. These two very important reasons explain
why Californian strawberry-producing firms have no desire to relocate,
and lack any serious foreign competition.

Insofar as public opinion is concerned, the challenge lies in making the

consumer aware of how fruits and vegetables end up in his or her plate,
and succeeding in making them feel some solidarity with the opposite end

of the food-production chain, which stretches from the field to the
supermarket.

According to the UFW, the share of the final sale which strawberry
workers receive is so small that a five cent increase in the price of a
box of strawberries would double their salaries, and ensure a decent
salary as well as improved working conditions.

Backed by a powerful labour union alliance, human rights/labour
rights/women's rights NGOs, as well as certain churches and consumer
associations, the "five cents for fairness"4 saw, in April 1997, some
30,000 protesters descend into the street - the largest agricultural
workers march ever organised by the US labour movement.
Abroad, international support has also surfaced, particularly in Canada
where some 80 per cent of the strawberries consumed originate in
California. The UFW, backed by Canadian trade unions, thereby managed to

organise a trip to Canada for Californian strawberry workers last
autumn.

Moving on from the boycotts and hunger strikes of the past, the UFW's
new strategy has been to enlist, via consumer pressure, the support of
companies in their drive to unionise and protect strawberry workers.
Large distribution chains, representing over 5,000 supermarkets, have
accepted to lend their backing to the "five cents for fairness." These
supermarkets have promised an eventual embargo against strawberry
producers who refuse to accept the UFW's demands.

Some 6,000 stores throughout the US thus signed letters of support for
the agreement reached with Coastal Berry - the nation's largest
strawberry producer - to allow workers to freely join unions. In June
1997, Coastal Berry, who employs some 1,500 workers southeast of San
Francisco during the peak season, agreed to not interfere with the
rights of workers to join organised labour unions.

Only recently accused of disturbing the strawberry harvests, unionists
are no longer prevented from accessing the strawberry fields and the
workers therein. Coastal Berry now allows UFW representatives to meet
with workers during their lunch break. This small step is actually quite

a substantial victory when one realises that only two and-one-half years

ago a neighbouring strawberry producer chose to destroy its crop and
fire 400 workers whose only crime was to have voted for the creation of
a union.

Further, some strawberry producers have re-hired workers previously
black-listed for their union-related activities.

Concretely, strawberry workers have noticed that trade union pressure
has brought about increased access to drinking water and sanitary
facilities near the fields where they work.

Now that trade union representatives are allowed to openly interact with

workers, the next step is to motivate the labourers to vote in favor of
the creation of unions within their companies, followed by the signing
of collective labour conventions.

The UFW's current focus is to involve as many firms as possible in their

quest to unionise workers to avoid having lone firms, who accept salary
increases, no longer finding themselves competitive. The point being to
prove that it is possible to have a financially sound company, whose
workers operate in acceptable conditions and with a minimum of respect.
To support the rank and file, the unions' mobilisation continues in the
streets. Following the traditional period of winter calm, the UFW's
campaign has blossomed anew. Thousands of people marched in support of
the UFW's action, aided by women's rights groups, in New York on March
29, followed by marches in San Francisco, San Antonio and Chicago. They
all demanded an end to the exploitation of seasonal strawberry workers.5

Following the success enjoyed in the strawberry, mushroom, roses and
apple sectors, the UFW has wasted no time in preparing its next
objective: to unionise the workers in the lemon and lettuce sectors.

1. Lib?ration, September 5, 1997.
2. Financial Times, December 12, 1997.
3. UFW website: www.ufw.org
4. Strawberry campaign website: www.now.org/issues/economic/strawberry/
5. AP US & World, March 29, 1998.
Contact: ICFTU-Press at: ++32-2 224.02.12 (Brussels). For more
information, visit our website at: (http://www.icftu.org).

----

Source details
Date: Wed, 06 May 1998 10:32:06 +0100 (BST)
Subject: ICFTU OnLine: fruits of anger (V)
Sender: union-d@wolfnet.com

INTERNATIONAL CONFEDERATION OF FREE TRADE UNIONS (ICFTU)
ICFTU OnLine...
109/980506/ND
The fruits of anger
The International union of food and agricultural workers (IUF) is
organising an international banana conference in Brussels on May 4-6.
The conference's purpose is to promote a charter which would include
workers' rights in plantations and the access of small producers to
international markets.  On this occasion, ICFTU OnLine is publishing a
series of articles on the social aspects of the international fruit
trade and on working conditions in the plantations.
--
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