18 May 2006
Support workers at Blue Diamond Growers

Blue Diamond runs the world’s largest almond processing plant in Sacramento, California. The workers there have been organising since September 2004 to join the ILWU. The company has responded with a persistent and aggressive anti-union campaign that included illegally firing union supporters and threatening to close the plant. The workers have called on international solidarity and the unions have answered loudly.

Marcy Rein of ILWU reports from Vancouver

Actions in support of the workers at Blue Diamond Growers (BDG) flashed around the Pacific Rim on 16 May as the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) held its 33^rd international convention in Vancouver, British Columbia.

ITF affiliates in Japan, Korea, Australia and New Zealand played key roles in organising rallies, petitions and letters of support for the Blue Diamond workers, while the British Columbia Federation of Labour and the ILWU joined forces for a noonday demonstration in the heart of Vancouver’s shopping district.

Blue Diamond runs the world’s largest almond processing plant in Sacramento, California. The workers there have been organising since September 2004 to join the ILWU. The company has responded with a persistent and aggressive anti-union campaign that included illegally firing union supporters and threatening to close the plant. The workers have called on international solidarity and the unions have answered loudly.

The All-Japan Seamen’s Union wrote to Blue Diamond’s Tokyo office. The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions wrote to Blue Diamond CEO Doug Youngdahl denouncing the company’s anti-union activities (and its intention to have duties on almonds imported into Korea removed as part of U.S.-Korea trade negotiations). The ITF coordinator in Korea requested a meeting with a major Blue Diamond customer in that country.

Support grows

The Maritime Union of Australia, working with the Rail, Tram and Bus Union, the Transport Workers’ Union and the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union, held rallies in Sydney and Melbourne in front of Scalzo Foods, another Blue Diamond customer.

Ten minutes into the action in Sydney, Scalzo managers agreed to send a strong letter to Blue Diamond. MUA branches all over the country passed resolutions and sent letters of support to the Blue Diamond workers. Australian Council of Trade Unions President Sharan Burrow sent a letter to Blue Diamond. The Maritime Union of New Zealand held a stop-work meeting April 27 and resolved to send a letter to Blue Diamond.

MUA National Secretary Paddy Crumlin. speaking at the convention in Vancouver, stressed that the advance of globalisation made it important to secure union rights and decent working conditions all along the supply chain

“This is not a dispute about Sacramento so much as it is about every worker,” Crumlin said. “It’s a chance to put into practice the rhetoric of ‘touch one, touch all.’”

In Vancouver, the ILWU adjourned its convention and some 300 delegates joined forces with members of the BC Fed to fill Robson Street with yellow balloons and loud chants of “I-L-W-U!” They marched to a local Safeway that sold Blue Diamond snacks. Some people went inside to try to speak to the manager while others rallied in the parking lot.

“We are not seeking to slay the Blue Diamond dragon,” Blue Diamond organising committee member Larry Newsome told the rally. “We just want to extinguish its fire and clip its wings.”

After much spirited chanting inside and speeches and music outside, the manager agreed to send a letter. The BC Fed followed up by phoning all of its members in the food industry and asking them to contact Safeway as well.