Sacramento Backs Blue Diamond Workers

Marcy Rein, a communications specialist in the ILWU Organizing Department, describes how the city of Sacramento put its weight behind the efforts of workers who for years have been seeking to form a union at Blue Diamond Growers in the face of massive company intimidation.

The Sacramento City Council in California on April 1 threw its support in a big way behind workers at Blue Diamond Growers struggling for the freedom to organize and join the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU). The Council voted 7–1 to create an ad hoc committee that would talk with the company, the workers and the union to try to work out a fair election process agreeable to all.

This marks the second time the Council had taken action for the Blue Diamond workers. At a packed and dramatic meeting Dec. 5, 2006, the Council passed a resolution urging the company to sign a neutrality agreement with the ILWU. Company management has not responded to that or any other input from the community it has called home for nearly 100 years—the community that gave it some $21 million in public aid in 1995 to keep it from leaving town. Blue Diamond Organizing Committee member Carlos Saraiva said the workers “are very happy with the Council’s decision.”

I hope now Blue Diamond will show some respect for the community leaders and the elected council members and receive them. I don’t ask them to agree at first, but at least they need to talk.

The vote also reflected the support Saraiva and his co-workers at the Blue Diamond processing plant have been building since they began organizing three and a half years ago.

Last year, during the debate over the Employee Free Choice Act, two members of Congress cited the experience of Ivo Camilo, a Blue Diamond worker who was fired after 35 years for seeking a better life by trying to form a union (see video). Camilo and his co-workers are falling farther and farther behind the cost of living because of sagging wages and rising health care costs. Yet they have no job security, as they watch the company give more and more of their jobs to temps. Many of the workers say they go to work every day hurting from carpal tunnel and other injuries.

When Blue Diamond learned workers were trying to form a union, the company let loose with anti-union interrogations, threats and firings, even before the workers made their campaign public. A National Labor Relations Board judge found the company guilty of 20 labor law violations in March 2006 and ordered it to rehire two union supporters it fired. Though Blue Diamond did so, its union-busting spread a fog of fear, which still hangs over the plant.  

The Sacramento facility, which employs more than 500 production workers, ranks as the largest almond processing plant in the world. Blue Diamond ships some 70 percent of its product overseas and has built name recognition around the world. The Blue Diamond workers’ call for solidarity has matched the company’s reach. Actions in support of their freedom to form a union have popped up on four continents. They have sent their message around the United States, throughout California and into their local community.

Last fall, a group of Sacramento activists formed “Communities Organizing Support for Blue Diamond Workers” (COS-BDW). COS held a public forum in November 2007 with a panel of eight political, religious and community leaders. After hearing workers describe Blue Diamond’s violations of their rights, the panel recommended fair ground rules for a vote on unionizing. They suggested the election should be held at a neutral place such as a school or church, under a neutral election monitor, and that both sides should have equal access to voters and promise not to intimidate them.

Panel members sent a letter to Blue Diamond CEO Doug Youngdahl explaining the rules. Then they waited. And waited. Two months later, Youngdahl wrote back to one of the panelists, state Sen. Darrell Steinberg, saying a meeting with COS “would not be an appropriate forum to discuss this matter.”

A COS delegation went to the plant March 13 to request a meeting in person. Youngdahl “was not in the office.” Human Resources honcho George Johnson came out and kept the group—many of whom were seniors—standing in the cold as he smirked and promised to “convey their concerns” to the CEO.

Days later, some 500 members of MEChA (Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán) rallied in front of the Blue Diamond Growers plant during the group’s national conference. They took up chalk and paint to cover the pavement with drawings and messages of support for the Blue Diamond workers, and promised to take word of the almond workers’ union fight back to their home chapters.

Sacramento’s César Chávez parade stopped for a brief rally at Blue Diamond on March 29. The thousands of participants yelled and chanted and sat down for a minute in front of the gift shop that sells almond goodies.

Blue Diamond management gave workers the mushroom treatment throughout these days of activity. To keep people from seeing the MEChA action, it shut down the plant on Good Friday for the first time in memory. Then it sent leads out to scrub the street before the Saturday shifts began. When The Sacramento Bee ran a piece on the upcoming City Council vote, Blue Diamond pulled all the copies of the paper that are usually on sale by the lunchroom.

Management didn’t even condescend to send anyone to the April 1 City Council meeting, where 75 Blue Diamond workers and community supporters came to support the resolution for an ad hoc committee introduced by Council member Steve Cohn.

Says organizing committee member Ben Monarque:

We are grateful to the City Council for their support. We want a free and fair election with a level playing field, making sure both sides play by the same rules.

Blue Diamond was quite willing to talk to the city when it was asking for money, said California State University professor emeritus Emmanuel Gale.

Let me read to you from the article in the Sacramento Bee. ‘”The City Council has no jurisdiction in this matter,” said Blue Diamond spokeswoman Susan Brauner in an e-mail message. “There would be nothing to negotiate with anyone.” Does BDG’s [Blue Diamond Growers'] request for the incentive package and the $21 million granted represent a contradiction with BDG’s current position that the city has no interest in this matter?

ACORN’s Chris Jones flayed the company for its bad attitude.

“We are appalled by the arrogance of Blue Diamond,” Jones said. “I was part of the panel that wrote the letter to Blue Diamond. They wouldn’t even answer us. In Blue Diamond’s eyes we don’t count and the workers don’t count. ACORN is here to support the Blue Diamond workers because they are part of our community.”

Sacramento Central Labor Council Executive Secretary Bill Camp underlined the importance of holding the election in a neutral place. When he worked for the California state agency that ran union elections for farm workers in the 1970s and 1980s, he insisted ballot boxes be set up in the fields.

Where you put the ballot box is key. Freedom of association has no meaning when workers feel they’re under the power of the boss. This is about who we are as a community. We want a community where everyone participates.

When the time came to vote, even one of the Council members who gave a thumbs down on the 2006 resolution approved the ad hoc committee.

As Council member Robert Fong says:

Having the kind of dialogue my colleague is suggesting can only be helpful. We have a responsibility to the employer and the employees at Blue Diamond to try to help resolve this situation.

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