Originally published in . . .

Volume 6, Number 2, Summer-Fall 1997

UFW and Teamsters Organizing
Apple Workers in Washington State

Fred Krissman


Dr. Krissman is a Visiting Scholar at the Center for Labor Studies, University of Washington, and Adjunct Researcher, Department of Anthropology, Washington State University. He has worked directly with union organizers in orchards and packing houses.


A 15-month-old "United for Change" campaign being waged jointly in Washington state by the Teamsters (IBT) and United Farm Workers (UFW) unions heated up considerably this summer. The two unions seek recognition from employers in the state's apple industry to collectively bargain on behalf of 30,000 field and 15,000 packing house workers.

In the past decade wages in the industry have been stagnant and total hours of employment have fallen, while apple production has increased by 25 percent and revenues from it have skyrocketed. Currently, even the minority of apple workers employed 10 months per year earn poverty-level wages, while most in the workforce earn only about $7,000 annually. Besides low earnings, workers complain of: health and safety hazards in the workplace (pesticides, noxious fumes, repetitive stress, falls, and other injuries); the lack of job security; lack of fringe benefits or unaffordable co-payment levels (for health insurance and such); favoritism in job assignments; and sexual harassment. Thirty percent of apple field workers and 80 percent of packing house workers are women.

Ongoing concentration of production within the billion dollar industry has put effective control over workplace conditions into the hands of about 30 companies. This summer the IBT delivered letters of intent to two of the state's largest packing houses, which combined employ more than 700 workers, and the UFW represented field workers in a number of orchard walk-outs. The Teamsters union has already won a host of National Labor Relations Board rulings against the packing houses for unfair labor practices and discriminatory behavior, obtaining company concessions and tens of thousands of dollars in cash settlements for affected workers.

In August, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka joined local activists for marches on packing houses in the region, and the IBT presented demands for recognition to corporation representatives during festive rallies that included banners, balloons, and noisemakers.

Considering that the UFW has also been running a major campaign to organize California's strawberry workers, the activity of its Washington contingent has been very impressive. The UFW led a successful effort to deny grower-sponsored legislation to permit substandard housing for migrant workers. A five-mile march protesting low wages drew at least 2,000 local farm workers and union activists from throughout the state to rural Mattawa. And UFW organizers have advised apple thinners and pickers whose pressing grievances had led them to spontaneous walk-outs from orchards. In several instances the workers were able to obtain dollar-an-hour wage increases. Growers have increasingly called for a new "guest worker" program that would flood the labor market with new workers.

The joint union campaign in Washington is important, of course, because it is helping America's most impoverished workers get a long-overdue raise. It is also noteworthy, however, for its basis in a historic agreement between the nation's two largest farm worker unions that are now actively cooperating to organize in the same industry. In overcoming a long and bitter legacy of in-fighting that has worked to the advantage of farm employers, the two unions are sharing information, participating in one another's activities, and perhaps presaging a more long-run labor solidarity.


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