Blue Diamond Workers United

VALENCIA, SPAIN--The port cities of Valencia and Barcelona on the Mediterranean Sea handle more than 80 percent of the California almonds coming to Spain--and the dock workers there stand ready to help the workers at the other end of the supply chain.

ILWU Organizer Agustin Ramirez and Blue Diamond worker Cesario Aguirre went to Spain in May to organize around Blue Diamond CEO Doug Youngdahl's appearance there. When Youngdahl addressed the World Nut and Dried Fruit Congress in Madrid May 12, some 30 Spanish union leaders and activists joined with the ILWU to add a little more information to his speech.

After the Congress, Ramirez and Aguirre traveled to Valencia and Barcelona to meet with members of La Coordinadora, the union that represents about 85 percent of Spain's dock workers. La Coordinadora hosted a press conference for them in Valencia May 14.

"We're not only here because of the Blue Diamond workers," said Julian Garcia, retired member of La Coordinadora and General Secretary of the International Dockworkers' Council (IDC.) "By helping the Blue Diamond workers, we're helping ourselves," Garcia said. "We're sending a message to our employers. If we are willing to do this for other people, think what we will do when it is our own struggle." Dockers, like workers everywhere, face increasing hostility from their employers, he added.

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