by Marcy Rein

Early on the organizing committee members at Blue Diamond Growers (BDG) learned they would have to think outside the gates of their Sacramento almond-processing plant to win their drive to join ILWU warehouse Local 17. This summer, their campaign has taken them to places they never thought they’d see, like Seoul and Tokyo—and to small towns all over north-central California, like Modesto, Atwater, Chico and Colusa.

“Almond Growers tries to paint the campaign into a little square around 18th and C Streets,” said organizing committee member Mike Olivera. “I tell people it’s on a world scale. Wherever Blue Diamond is, we will be there as well.”

BDG has a global reach, shipping 70 percent of its almonds overseas. Japan ranks third among BDG’s top 10 customers. South Korea ranks sixth.
Blue Diamond also has deep roots in California. It runs as a cooperative and its almond-farmer members and decision-makers live and work in towns scattered around Hwy. 99, from Bakersfield in the south to Chico in the north.

And BDG is anti-union. It met the workers’ drive with a nasty union-busting campaign. The National Labor Relations Board found it guilty of more than 20 labor law violations, including the firings of two union supporters. Though the company re-hired the two, it insists it did nothing wrong.

The committee members have pushed back. Last year, they had dozens of meetings with unions and community groups and public officials around Sacramento, seeking to build backing for their right to organize. Now they are reaching deeper into Blue Diamond’s networks of customers, distributors, shippers and decision-makers, and pressing for a formal neutrality agreement between the company and the union.

SEOUL BROTHERS
Organizing Committee member Gene Esparza couldn’t believe his ears when ILWU organizer Agustin Ramirez told him he would be going to Seoul, South Korea in July.
“I asked him to repeat himself three times,” said Esparza, a forklift driver with 36 years at the Blue Diamond Growers (BDG) plant in Sacramento.

The ILWU has coordinated two international days of action in support of the BDG workers, the second during its convention in Vancouver in May. Several global and national unions and federations have helped carry the workers’ message to BDG customers and distributors overseas.

Most recently, South Korea’s two main federations—the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) and the Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU)—have stepped forward, along with the Zenkowan, the All-Japan Dock Workers’ Union.

The Koreans linked the Blue Diamond workers’ organizing to the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (KORUS-FTA) now being negotiated. In March 2006, Blue Diamond asked the U.S. Trade Representative to include a provision in the KORUS FTA that would eliminate the duties on U.S. almonds imported into Korea.

“We are deeply disturbed that Blue Diamond Growers, with its disgraceful labor rights record, is trying to secure future expanded almond sales in Korea,” KCTU President Jun-Ho Jo wrote in a letter to Blue Diamond CEO Douglas Youngdahl.

The Koreans also fear that KORUS-FTA would undermine workers’ rights in their own country. 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.

Representatives from the KCTU and FKTU came to Washington, D.C. to protest and lobby when talks on the KORUS-FTA opened in June. After a productive few days of work with the AFL-CIO as well as the ILWU there, they invited the U.S. unionists to the next round of talks in Seoul July 10-14.

Esparza and Ramirez traveled with senior staff from the AFL-CIO. During their five days in Seoul, they met with a Blue Diamond distributor and with the union that represents workers at Lotte confectionery, a big BDG customer. They spoke at a press conference organized for them by the FKTU and KCTU, and told people at several rallies and cultural events why Blue Diamond workers need a union. They also added their voice to the loud, dramatic and determined anti-KORUS protests that rocked Seoul that week.

Around 170,000 workers all over South Korea answered KCTU’s call for a general strike July 12, the day of the biggest march and rally. The unions joined forces with farmers’ and civic groups in the Korean Alliance Against KORUS-FTA, a coalition of 282 organizations. The rally in Seoul drew 40,000 people despite a drenching downpour. The ILWU/AFL-CIO delegation headed up the march with the Korean movement leaders, walking just behind a sound truck bristling with nine amplifiers. Three people took turns on the microphone, keeping up a ceaseless stream of chants. The crowd yelled back, not fazed by the rain.

“The Koreans are so dedicated, so strong for the cause,” Esparza said. “You can see it in their eyes… and they’re out there rain, shine or snow.”

ZEN (KOWAN) AND THE ART OF SOLIDARITY
The ILWU’s ties to Japan’s dockworkers date from the late 1930s and have deepened over the years. Zenkowan’s General Secretary Akinobuh Itoh attended the ILWU convention this year, and heard the Blue Diamond workers speak. He immediately offered to coordinate actions for them in Japan—and invited them to participate.

ILWU warehouse Local 17 Secretary-Treasurer Jack Wyatt Sr. and organizing committee member Randy Reyes went to Japan July 28. Zenkowan, working with the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) and the International Union of Food Workers, put together a demonstration outside Blue Diamond’s Tokyo office. The 50-some participants came from unions representing a total of 850,000 workers. At first Blue Diamond declined to meet.

“Itoh was very persistent, very professional but very persistent,” Wyatt said. The sales and administration representatives finally gave in. After listening intently, they promised to see that the message got to their manager and to Blue Diamond in the U.S.

“The Japanese take workers’ rights very seriously,” Reyes said. “They said they will let a lot of people know Blue Diamond is treating us badly.”
The same day on the other lip of the Pacific Rim, ILWU longshore Locals 10 and 13 anchored rallies in the Ports of Oakland and Los Angeles. About 50 ILWU members and allies gathered in each port to show support for the Blue Diamond workers.

CALIFORNIA BACK ROADS
In between the actions in Korea and Japan, the organizing committee began its series of California road trips. Braving July’s record-breaking heat, committee members set off to visit members of Blue Diamond’s board of directors—and alert their neighbors and associates to the co-op’s anti-worker antics.

“We went to show a presence in these fat cats’ neighborhoods,” Olivera said. “I don’t think they care for that. It’s like airing their dirty laundry for their neighbors.”

Blue Diamond CEO Youngdahl also serves as vice-chair of the California Almond Board, a growers’ association that promotes almonds as well as grower-friendly public policy. The committee members began their tour by showing up at the Almond Board’s July 19 meeting in Modesto. Members of the Central Valley Democrats, Food Not Bombs and the United Food and Commercial Workers union (UFCW) joined them for the action.

“You could tell Youngdahl was flustered when we walked in with our yellow shirts even though he acts like Mr. Cool,” committee member Ann Hurlbut said. “He got this real stiff, cold look on his face and tightened his lips.”

The workers couldn’t get time on the agenda, but they did talk with a reporter from the Modesto Bee and hand flyers to many of the growers in the audience. Then they found a few air-conditioned oases to hang out in before heading up to Atwater for the evening meeting of the Merced Union High School District.

Blue Diamond Director Robert Weimer sits on the school district’s board. During last year’s contract talks with the California School Employees’ Assn., he let loose some slurs people still talk about.

“He told the members, ‘We could replace you with monkeys,’” said CSEA rep Laurie Mitchell-Cole. CSEA happily turned out about 25 members wearing their colors and loudly backing up the Blue Diamond crew when Hurlbut addressed the meeting.

“We told Weimer the schools should be about representing what’s right, and the school board members should carry that representation into the community,” Hurlbut said.

Blue Diamond Board Chair Howard Isom also chairs the board of Chico’s newest financial institution, the Golden Valley Bank. The committee caravanned to Chico July 21 to try to meet with him. Despite the day’s 108-degree heat, the bank employees gave the visitors the cold shoulder—though they eventually agreed to get a message to Isom. The committee then leafleted briefly outside the bank with support from Chico City Council member Andy Holcombe, the Democratic Action Committee and Women’s Health Specialists.

Blue Diamond Director Elaine Rominger faces a November runoff in her bid to become the Colusa County supervisor from District 1—and  whether she knew about the co-op’s violations of labor law and kept quiet, or didn’t know, the committee thought the voters should be concerned. Just about everyone they met on their Aug. 2 visit seemed friendly and interested.

The firefighters offered cold drinks and popcorn and the staff at the public library and the Farm Bureau offered to distribute their flyers. The editor of the Colusa County Sun-Herald, who they went to see, promised to print the letter they brought and called the reporter in to do an interview—though at press time no article had appeared.

“We’re just hoping the message gets back to Youngdahl,” Hurlbut said. “We’re just going to keep on, one action at a time, until they hear us.”