Solidarity Action for Blue Diamond Workers Shakes up Madrid Conference

Marcy Rein, a communications specialist in the Organizing Department of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), reports on the latest action by workers trying to win a voice on the job at Blue Diamond Growers. 

Madrid, Spain—Blue Diamond Growers CEO Doug Youngdahl might have thought he had left his unhappy employees behind him when he traveled to the 26th Congress of the International Nut and Dried Fruit Council Foundation in Madrid, Spain. After all, Madrid is a long way from Sacramento, Calif., where Blue Diamond runs the world’s largest almond processing plant. But the arms of union solidarity are even longer. On May 12, unionists joined the meeting to let everyone present know that Blue Diamond is not only a major exporter of California almonds, but a major violator of U.S. labor laws as well.

Spain is Blue Diamond’s second largest export market, and Youngdahl sits on the board of the International Tree Nut Council (INC). The INC Congress in Madrid offered an outreach opportunity too good to miss. The ILWU sent Agustin Ramirez, the lead organizer on the Blue Diamond campaign, along with Organizing Committee member Cesario Aguirre, to make the most of it. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney had written to the heads of the Unión General de Trabajadores (UGT) and the Confederación Sindical de Comisiones Obreras (CC.OO) asking them to “lend their power and prestige” to the activities, which they did. The May 12 action capped several days of meetings and briefings with a wide range of union representatives.

On Saturday morning, some 30 union leaders and activists quietly filtered in to the conference site at the upscale Meliá Castilla hotel, trying their best to blend in. (The INC Congress draws attendees from every continent except Antarctica, but in this buttoned-down crowd, Ramirez’ sneakers had drawn suspicious looks from the security guards the day before.)

Some of the activists fanned out around the hotel. Some went in to the auditorium where Youngdahl was speaking. The high rollers of the almond world sat on the stage behind him, representatives of Blue Diamond’s customers and competitors. Some 200 people sat in the audience.

At exactly 11:45 a.m., eight people charged the stage and unfurled three union banners. One came from the International Transport Workers Federation and one from the TCM. The third bore the logos of all the participating unions and declared, “Por la Organización Sindical y la Libertad en Blue Diamond” (For Union Organization and Freedom at Blue Diamond). Ramirez began shouting the explanation for the action.

The community Mr. Youngdahl deals with needs to be aware of his treatment of his workers and that Blue Diamond is guilty of labor law violations.

Another eight activists began passing fliers inside the auditorium, while the activists outside distributed the information around the hotel.

Says Ramirez:

Youngdahl tried to ignore me at first, but he got really red and nervous and then stepped away from the mic.

The crowd was so surprised that there was dead silence. The emcee for the session stepped in and jokingly asked for a round of applause, which the delegates gave. Then he called for security—but the activists slipped by the guards on their way out, helped by their badges, which looked similar to the official ones but identified them instead as members of the “Committee in Solidarity with the Blue Diamond Workers.”

Twenty minutes after it started, the action was over, except for the thanks and the picture-taking on the sidewalk outside the hotel. Ramirez and Aguirre left the next day for Valencia, where the Coordinadora, a dockworker’s union, has organized further solidarity actions.

The union members represented the international departments of the UGT, the CC.OO, one of Spain’s two main union federations, the food workers’ groups in each federation, as well as two dockworkers’ unions, the Coordinadora and the Federación de Transportes, Comunicaciones y Mar (TCM) and the farm workers’ union Unio de Pagesosthe. Many of the participants made the three-and-a-half-hour trip from Valencia to Madrid or the six-hour trek from Barcelona.

Says Joseba Echebarria, international secretary for the UGT:

Blue Diamond has been found guilty of breaking numerous laws in an effort to deny its workers their basic human right to join a union.

Adds Javier Doz, his counterpart in the CC.OO:

As trade unionists, we cannot keep silent while the leader of this company is here in Madrid promoting California almonds.

For the past two-and-a-half years, the Blue Diamond Organizing Committee has been trying to bring the 600-plus workers at the Sacramento plant into the ILWU. Blue Diamond responded with an aggressive anti-union campaign that made it a poster child for the need to pass the Employee Free Choice Act. In March 2006, a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) administrative law judge found the company guilty of more than 20 labor law violations, including the firings of two union supporters. Blue Diamond settled the cases by agreeing to reinstate the two. It wasn’t compying with an order because the settlement closed the case without there being an order. It faced a second four-day hearing for illegal firings and discipline in January 2007.

In an effort to get their employer to respect their right to decide for themselves whether they should form a union, the Blue Diamond workers have reached out broadly. They traveled all over northern and central California last summer to meet Blue Diamond growers and decision-makers. They secured a resolution of support from the Sacramento City Council in December. And because Blue Diamond exports some 70 percent of its product, their campaign has taken them overseas as well. Last summer, they visited Japan at the invitation of the All-Japan Dock Workers’ Union and traveled to South Korea with an AFL-CIO delegation.

Says Aguirre:

Everyone seemed very interested in what we had to say. It was hard for them to believe the right to organize is so suppressed here. The U.S. is supposed to be the world’s leading country, so they can’t understand why it doesn’t respect workers’ rights.”

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