The Local Convention completed its work in September 2006 and adopted programs that will guide us for the next three years. It addresses the various areas that are important to our membership. I would like to cover one program area that needs to be strengthened.
The business community took a page from the labor union’s political campaign workbook and has been successful in electing politicians who support their agenda. Many laws have been passed that are not favorable for the working people. We must turn the tide and we can do it with all of the working people getting involved and electing politicians who will vote for laws that favor the working people. Understand how important it is. Learn how the politicians have affected your conditions of employment and standard of living. Register to vote and vote for the politicians who care what happens to working people.
Having laws favoring the working people will level the playing field in organizing working people into unions. Large membership provides a greater influence in improving your benefits in negotiations. Large membership will provide more opportunities to provide the membership with more programs.
Get involved if you care what happens in the political arena that affects your conditions of employment and standard of living. Get involved. ◆
Blue Diamond workers need your help to organize
Excerpted from articles from www.ilwu.org and www.bluediamondunion.org
For years, Blue Diamond Growers (BDG), which operates the world’s largest almond processing plant, denied its workers the respect, raises and benefits they deserve. In summer 2004, the 600+ workers began organizing to join the ILWU Local 17. They saw no other way to gain a voice and hold on to some dignity at work.
Caught between soaring health care costs and sagging wages, many BDG workers find themselves worse off than they were 15 years ago. Inside the plant, workers often face a harsh environment and hostile attitudes. Repetitive strain injuries like carpal tunnel have become so routine workers don’t think to mention them at first.
Anti-union campaign
• BDG fired four union supporters for the flimsiest of reasons—including Ivo Camilo, who had a spotless record after 35 years in the plant. • BDG threatened that people would lose their pensions if they joined the union—or the plant would have to close.
Weaving a wide net of support
The Blue Diamond workers have met with all Sacramento City Council members and a representative of the mayor. Seven of the eight Council members signed a pledge in support of the workers’ right to join a union.
On March 14, a 22-person delegation from the Tokyo Coordination Center for Labor Unions visited BDG branch office in Tokyo to deliver a letter of protest urging Blue Diamond’s head office to immediately cease its anti-union campaign.
On May 14 the ILWU, Unión General de Trabajadores (UGT) and the Confederación Sindical de Comisiones Obreras (CC.OO) joined together for an action at the 26th Congress of the International Nut and Dried Fruit Council Foundation in Madrid.
Other international and US labor and community organizations, as well as ILWU members up and down the coast and in Hawaii have joined the fight.
You can help
Blue Diamond workers need your help. Ask Blue Diamond to respect their workers’ right to organize. Write to Doug Youngdahl, CEO, Blue Diamond Growers, 1802 C St., Sacramento, CA 95814, or e-mail the company: feedback@bdgrowers.com.
ILWU organizers leafletted See’s Candies outlets in the Ala Moana Shopping Center, Kahala Mall and Pearlridge Shopping Center before Valentine’s Day, Easter, and Mother’s Day. ILWU organizer Ron Clough (r) explains Blue Diamond workers’ fight to gain union representation for the past three years.
International Rep. Tracy Takano (r) asks for a shopper’s support in front of the Ala Moana See’s.
