First in Series: AFL-CIO-ILWU Delegation Sets off for South Korea

by Tula Connell, Jul 7, 2006

Marcy Rein, communications specialist in the Organizing Department of the International Longshore Union (ILWU), sends us the first in a series of posts on an AFL-CIO-ILWU delegation to South Korea. U.S. unionists will meet with their counterparts to discuss strategies for addressing an impending Korea-U.S. Trade Agreement (KORUS)—another in a line of Bush-backed trade deals that ensure the rights of corporations, but not workers, are protected.

In his 36 years of driving a forklift at the Blue Diamond Growers (BDG) plant in Sacramento, Calif., Gene Esparza never imagined he would fly to South Korea. He never thought he would see his future linked to that of workers half a world away.

But two years ago, Esparza got together with his co-workers and began organizing to join the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU). On July 7, he left for Seoul with a delegation organized by the AFL-CIO. The group will offer solidarity during a week of protests of the Korea-U.S. Trade Agreement (KORUS)—and seek support for the Blue Diamond workers’ union drive.

The delegation, which includes senior staff from the AFL-CIO and the ILWU, follows a round of joint lobbying and protests when talks on KORUS opened in Washington, D.C. The AFL-CIO, CTW, the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions and the Federation of Korean Trade Unions issued a joint declaration June 6 on KORUS. Their statement called on both governments to ensure the trade agreements do not undercut workers’ rights, environmental protection, food security or public services.

Korean unionists fear KORUS would weaken workers’ rights. Already, many of Korea’s 15 million workers must work long hours in unsafe conditions. More than half are “irregular,” meaning they work part time or are self-employed.

Based on more than 10 years’ experience with the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), U.S. unionists share the same fears. More than 3 million manufacturing jobs have fled the country since 1998. The average family income keeps falling, and the number of poor people keeps rising. Mexico and Canada also have seen wages fall and the gap between rich and poor widen.

Free-trade agreements like NAFTA and KORUS speed the erosion of working conditions all over the world—and give workers few tools they can use to hold their ground. They do little to enforce workers’ basic rights. Companies like Blue Diamond can violate those rights and still seek special treatment under the trade deals.

Blue Diamond’s Sacramento facility is the largest almond-processing plant in the world. BDG processes just less than one-fourth of the world’s almonds and exports some 70 percent of them. Korea is its seventh-largest market. In March 2006, the company asked the U.S. Trade Representative to include a provision in KORUS eliminating the duties on U.S. almonds imported into Korea.
 
BDG launched a nasty anti-union campaign when Esparza and his co-workers began organizing. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) found the company guilty of more than 20 violations of labor law, including firing union supporters, threatening that the plant would close or move and interrogating workers about their feelings on the union.
 
BDG obeyed the NLRB order to rehire two of the fired workers but insists it did nothing wrong. Union supporters say fear lingers in the plant, and the company is still trying to discourage their organizing efforts.
 
They know they can’t hope to get Blue Diamond to back off unless they take their fight outside the plant gates. They have been talking to their representatives in the local, state and federal government, to community allies in the Sacramento area and to union brothers and sisters at home and overseas.

At first, Gene Esparza couldn’t believe his ears when ILWU Organizer Agustin Ramirez told him about the Korea trip.

“I asked Agustin to repeat himself three times,” Esparza said. “He must’ve thought I was stupid.” But after the news sank in, he said, “I am proud to be going to represent my co-workers at Blue Diamond. We need to talk to people all over the world who eat and use Blue Diamond almonds. We need them to tell the company to be neutral, let us make our own decision and respect our right to organize.”

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