Our Story
Blue Diamond workers need a union
Some 600 people process and pack almonds and ship them all over the world from the Sacramento, California plant run by the Blue Diamond Growers cooperative (BDG). California leads the world in almond production and BDG calls this plant the world’s largest. And the workers at this world-class facility have been organizing since September 2004 to join the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.
They’re bringing Cesar Chavez’ vision from the fields to the line.
The Blue Diamond workers want the respect and recognition that comes with a union contract. They want to sit down with BDG and negotiate wages that keep up with the cost of living. They want affordable health care and a safe and healthy workplace.
Many of the workers have given BDG 30 years or more. Their wages have crept up. The costs of health care, gas and rent have shot up. People go to work hurting every day from carpal tunnel and other injuries. Because they have no union contract, the workers can be fired at any time for any reason or none.
Since they started organizing, the company has raised wages and made it easier to qualify for benefits. But the workers know how they got these gains and how quickly they could lose them--unless they get a union.
Blue Diamond workers need your help
The company came down hard on the workers’ organizing.
Blue Diamond fired four union supporters for the flimsiest of reasons. It threatened that people would lose their pensions if they brought in the union, or else the plant would have to close. It interrogated people about their support for the union.
U.S. labor law enforcement is slow and feeble.
U.S. labor law bars such firings, threats and harassment. A judge for the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the federal agency which enforces that law, found Blue Diamond guilty of 20 violations in March 2006. The judge told the company to re-hire two of the fired workers, give them back pay plus interest, and post a notice promising to follow the law. Though the company did bring back the fired workers, it paid no penalties beyond their back pay. It fired two more people--one for taking home two empty cardboard boxes. That case is on appeal. Union supporters say BDG continues to harass them, and fear hangs over the plant.
Fear robs workers of free choice.
Blue Diamond needs to sign on to fair election rules. Standard NLRB election rules let management keep its huge advantage. The employer has power over the workers and easy access to them. The union has neither. Fair rules level the playing field. Under fair rules, Blue Diamond would promise to step back and stop its harassment and threats. Union supporters could speak freely, and union reps would have access to the plant. The election would take place on neutral ground. Without such fair rules, fear would still pollute the atmosphere in the plant. Fair rules protect the workers’ freedom to decide for themselves whether or not they want a union.
Like the farmworkers in the 1960s and ‘70s, the Blue Diamond workers know they cannot win justice alone. They are weaving a web of solidarity that stretches from Sacramento clear around the world. With your help, the web can grow!
Nuestra historia
Los obreros de Blue Diamond necesitan un sindicato
La cooperativa de Agricultores Blue Diamond dirige la planta procesadora de almendras más grande del mundo. Emplea a más de 600 personas en dicha instalación localizada en Sacramento, California. Estos obreros se han estado organizando desde septiembre de 2004 para afiliarse al Sindicato Internacional de Estibadores y Almacenistas (International Longshore and Warehouse Union). ¿Por qué?
Aumentan los costos de los servicios médicos, los salarios son insuficientes y los obreros se van rezagando.
Los obreros de los EE.UU. dependen del seguro médico que se les proporciona en el trabajo porque el país no tiene un plan nacional de asistencia médica. Los empleadores a menudo hacen que sus empleados paguen los costos crecientes de la asistencia médica. Los clasificadores y empacadores, el grupo de obreros más numeroso y menos remunerado de Blue Diamond ha visto aumentar sus salarios sólo un 34% en los últimos 11 años. Sus pagos de asistencia médica han subido 548% durante ese mismo período. Cuando se agrega esto a otros aumentos en el costo de la vida, muchos obreros se encuentran en peores condiciones que hace 11 años.
El trabajo enferma y estresa a la gente.
La planta siempre está llena de polvo y a veces hace bastante calor y ruido allí. La gente se presenta a trabajar todos los días a pesar de padecer dolores por lesiones del túnel carpiano y otras lastimaduras. Algunos sufren de nauseas y se enferman después de que se fumiga la planta procesadora. Muchos supervisores a diario son groseros con los obreros y les faltan al respeto. Dado que los obreros no tienen un contrato colectivo de trabajo, su empleo no está asegurado. Pueden ser cesados en cualquier momento por cualquier motivo y sin motivo alguno.
Los obreros de Blue Diamond necesitan su ayuda.
La compañía ha reaccionado a la sindicalización con mano dura.
Blue Diamond cesó a cuatro obreros que simpatizaban con el sindicato dando pretextos. Amenazó a la gente con la pérdida de su pensión si opta por afiliarse al sindicato, e incluso la amenazó con cerrar la planta procesadora. Interrogó ilícitamente a la gente acerca de su simpatía por el sindicato.
La aplicación de la ley laboral estadounidense es un proceso lento y poco estricto.
La ley laboral prohibe la terminación de los empleados, las amenazas y el acoso. La Junta Nacional de Relaciones Laborales, un organismo federal que hace cumplir la ley, determinó en marzo de 2006 que Blue Diamond había caído en más de dos docenas de violaciones de la ley. Ordenó que la compañía reincorporara a dos de los obreros cesados, les reintegrara sus salarios con pago de intereses, y colocara un aviso prometiendo cumplir con la ley. Dicha Junta también tomo la medida inusitada de pedir un mandato judicial para garantizar la ejecución de sus órdenes por Blue Diamond. Aunque la compañía de hecho reincorporó a los obreros despedidos y les pagó los salarios atrasados, no se le impuso ningún otro castigo. Se le hizo comparecer de nuevo ante la Junta por otras cesantías en enero de 2007, y sigue hostigando a los obreros que apoyan el sindicato. Los obreros viven con el temor constantemente en el trabajo.
El temor priva a los obreros de la libertad de elección.
Es necesario que Blue Diamond firme un acuerdo de neutralidad. De conformidad con tal acuerdo, Blue Diamond prometería mantenerse al margen y poner un alto al hostigamiento y amenazas. Los que apoyan el sindicato podrían hablar libremente. Sin la neutralidad, el temor seguirá contaminando el ambiente de trabajo en la planta. La neutralidad protege a los obreros para que decidan libremente si desean o no tener un sindicato.
Los obreros de Blue Diamond saben que la compañía no accederá fácilmente a la neutralidad. Están forjando una red de apoyo que se extenderá por todo el mundo con su centro en Sacramento. El dorso de esta hoja contiene imágenes de algunas de sus acciones. Con su ayuda ¡puede ampliarse la red!
Photo Journal
The Face of the Blue Diamond Workers
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(Pictured Right): Blue Diamond workers took their first public action together by walking in Sacramento’s Cesar Chavez Day Parade on March 26, 2005. About half the workers are Latino. Some 10% are Punjabi, 10% come from other Asian backgrounds, 10% are African American and 20% are white. Nearly half are women.
(Pictured Left): Blue Diamond workers tried to deliver a letter to management asking that it respect their rights under the National Labor Relations Act. Alex Barrios from California Assembly member Dave Jones’ office and Bill Camp, head of the Sacramento Central Labor Council, came with them.
(Pictured Right): Blue Diamond met the workers’ organizing with a nasty anti-union campaign that included firings, discipline and threats. The National Labor Relations Board ordered BDG to re-hire two of the fired union supporters with full back pay and interest. Their co-workers welcomed them back April 24, 2006.
(Pictured Left): On the second International Day of Action for Blue Diamond Workers, the British Columbia Federation of Labour joined forces with the ILWU for a noontime march through the heart of Vancouver’s shopping district. They marched to a local Safeway that sells Blue Diamond snacks, and asked the managers to put a call in to the company urging it to change its antiunion ways. Allies in Japan, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, Spain and Denmark also took part in the series of actions during late April and early May of 2006.
(Pictured Right): Since summer 2006, the workers on the Blue Diamond Organizing Committee have stepped up their push for a neutrality agreement. They have traveled all over California trying to speak with members of BDG’s Board of Directors—and they went to Seoul and Tokyo as guests of unions there. In Tokyo, they took part in a demonstration in front of Blue Diamond’s Japan office.