No Gem of a Deal for Blue Diamond Almond Workers

by James Parks, Apr 21, 2006

The health effects of eating almonds are becoming well known and, as a result, the almond business is thriving. But the workers who process the nuts at Blue Diamond Growers, the world’s largest almond processor, are not thriving.

“As workers of Blue Diamond, we have no voice in terms of policy change, no job security. We are employees at will and we have no guarantees,” Ivo Camilo told a legislative town hall meeting chaired by Reps. George Miller and Doris Matsui, both California Democrats. Camilo, a 35-year employee and union supporter, was fired after he cut his hand on a machine. He was fired less than a week after he and other workers announced publicly they wanted to form a union.

Camilo was among employees at an April 20 hearing in Sacramento, Calif., describing how Blue Diamond fired workers who were trying to form a union with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 17. 

Their experiences confirm the need for Congress to pass the AFL-CIO-backed Employee Free Choice Act. The act (H.R. 1696/S. 842) would strengthen protections for workers’ freedom to choose by requiring employers to recognize a union after a majority of workers sign cards authorizing union representation. It also would provide for mediation and arbitration of first-contract disputes and authorize stronger penalties for violation of the law when workers seek to form a union. Miller is one of the bipartisan co-sponsors of the Employee Free Choice Act.

A National Labor Relations Board administrative law judge ruled Blue Diamond violated federal labor laws 26 times and ordered the company to rehire Camilo and fellow worker Mike Flores with back pay. The two return to work April 24, nearly a year after Camilo was terminated.

“In this case, Blue Diamond’s actions were so egregious that even the Bush NLRB ruled against the company,” says Peter Olney, ILWU’s organizing director.

Blue Diamond workers began trying to form a union a year and a half ago. They’d had enough of flat wages, mushrooming health care costs and daily disrespect from supervisors. The almond processor mounted a fierce anti-union campaign, firing three workers and sowing fear with threats of plant closure and loss of benefits, Olney says.

For 15 years workers’ wages stayed nearly the same while their health care co-pays spiked. Seasonal workers with as much as 38 years’ seniority didn’t qualify for paid time off because they didn’t log enough hours in a year. People went to work in pain from carpal tunnel and other injuries.

Camilo says he still supports the union despite the hard times he suffered after being fired:

I also learned that I would do it all over again. I would join the organizing committee, attend meetings, and speak with my co-workers about the need for health coverage, better wages, and better conditions at work. I learned that I deserve respect and recognition for my work. I learned that I believe in justice and in equality. And that as a member of this community, I matter, my family, and my co-workers matter as well.

Through the workers’ experience and the testimony of two academic experts, Miller and Matsui hope to shed more light on the ways the Employee Free Choice Act will change the climate for union organizing.

They also heard from workers at Cingular Wireless whose neutrality agreement with the company and the Communications Workers of America took effect in July 2005. The 800 workers in Cingular’s Sacramento call center and more than 100 in local Cingular retail outlets joined CWA in October after a majority signed cards confirming that they wanted the union to represent them. Nearly 17,000 former AT&T Wireless workers have joined  CWA since the company’s 2004 merger with Cingular.
 

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