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From local to global

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Page context: Home > Transport International Magazine > Issue 23 April 2006 > From local to global

The struggle of workers at the world’s largest almond processing plant has struck a chord with transport unions campaigning in an ever more inter-dependent global environment, says Sharon James

In September 2004, workers in the Blue Diamond Growers’ Sacramento plant started organising to join the International Longshore and Warehouse Union’s Local 17. Many of them had only seen US$2 in raises since 1990. Many had given more than 30 years of service but didn’t qualify for any vacation, sick days or holiday pay. The management’s response to the organising drive was, to quote a company spokesperson, “an aggressive union-avoidance campaign”.

Blue Diamond runs the world’s largest almond processing plant. It employs just over 600 workers in California – sorter/packers, cook room attendants, transport operators, mechanics, forklift drivers, distribution centre and other production and maintenance workers. Nearly half of them are women. Around half are Latino.

Some 10 per cent come from India and the Punjab region of Pakistan. Ten per cent come from other Asian backgrounds. Ten per cent are African American and 20 per cent are white. A truly international mix. “But what do workers in a nut processing plant have to do with the ITF?” some may ask. Well, everything.

It isn’t only because an ITF affiliate has taken up their cause, or because Blue Diamond products are handled by dockers around the world. Workers at the Blue Diamond plant are fighting for a fundamental principle that underpins our movement – the right to join a trade union. The ILWU’s campaign also throws the spotlight on the major challenges facing a trade union movement trying to defend social rights in a time of rampant economic globalisation. These are the need to organise unorganised workers, to cooperate across national boundaries and to campaign strategically along the supply chains of companies in order to redress the imbalance in bargaining power between labour and capital.

Union busting has unfortunately become increasingly commonplace around the world. Nevertheless, the experiences of pro-union workers at the Blue Diamond plant still make depressing reading – the sacking of union supporters, anti-union propaganda, threats of plant closure and pension loss, and the interrogation of workers about their union sympathies.

Ivo Camilo had a spotless record after 35 years in the plant. He joined the union organising committee in October 2004. In a letter dated 15 April 2005, the committee demanded that Blue Diamond respect their right to organise. Five days later, on 20 April, two supervisors walked Camilo out of the plant. They claimed that he had wilfully contaminated almonds with blood from a 1/8th inch cut on his hand. Camilo was sacked on 21 April. Mike Flores sat down between batches of almond paste, as he had done for years. He was sacked.

The company claimed that Amado Sabala was sleeping on the job – one minute before his break. Mike Vaughn was sacked for not being able to lift, although his job required no lifting.

Anti-union evidence

After a three-month investigation, the National Labour Relations Board (NLRB) found strong evidence indicating that Blue Diamond had broken the law. It issued a complaint against the company citing 28 separate violations. An NLRB administrative law judge began hearing the case on 5 December. The decision is pending.

The union is hoping for a finding in its favour but is not relying on the law alone. It is spreading the word of the workers’ struggle to all parties who have relationships with Blue Diamond, with one simple request: Ask the company to remain neutral and let workers decide for themselves whether or not they want a union.

Following a successful national day of action on 31 October 2005 – when activities took place in various cities around the US, the ILWU looked to ITF affiliates for support with its International Day of Action on 21 November. The help of the International Union of Food Workers (IUF), a sister Global Union Federation was also enlisted.

Californian almond growers send about 70 per cent of their product overseas, with Spain, Japan, India, France, Korea and the UK ranking among Blue Diamond’s top 15 international destinations. These countries were targeted for the International Day of Action. ITF affiliates were asked to raise the concerns of the Sacramento workers with Blue Diamond distributors in their countries. Many answered the call.
ITF affiliates coordinated actions in South Korea, Japan, India, and the UK.

Activities also took place in the Netherlands and Italy in the run up to the Day of Action. Affiliates of the IUF stepped in to assist with activities in France and Spain. The messages that we hoped to get across were simple: First, let workers in the Sacramento plant decide, without interference, whether to join a union. Second, these workers are part of a global trade union family and are not alone in their fight.

Global dimension is crucial

The struggle of the Blue Diamond workers demonstrates just how difficult it can be to win decent conditions in the hostile economic and political environments that many unions operate in today. With limited resources, pressing local issues to address and many obstacles to surmount, it can be hard for unions to keep their eye on the role of global campaigning. Increasingly however, they are understanding that a successful campaign for better conditions nationally may depend upon a global dimension. Certainly this need is understood by the ILWU with its extensive international experience.

It is clear that the political and economic consensus that emerged in the late 1970s, namely the neo-liberal policies of deregulation and liberalisation, created a conducive environment for international trade and encouraged the globalisation of corporate activity, massively increasing the movement of goods, services and indeed jobs around the world.

Such policies have devastated workers and weakened unions, and continue to do so. They remain high on the agendas of most governments and are pursued relentlessly by international institutions including the World Trade Organisation, World Bank and International Monetary Fund. However, the global economy has also developed in ways that potentially put transport unions in a strategic position.

Corporate vulnerability

The global economy depends on the ability of modern transportation systems, structured into sophisticated logistics and distribution chains, to move materials and components rapidly around the world. Transporters feed the global production processes of multinational companies, and ensure the swift delivery of completed goods to distributors and customers.

In the modern world, the production and distribution of goods is seldom a single-firm activity and is increasingly organised in networks of suppliers and sub-contractors, or supply chains

The development of “just-in-time” production, sometimes called “lean production”, has also transformed manufacturing and the distribution of goods. Under this system, the supply of materials and components is organised on demand, replacing the former storage and stock-keeping of inventory, thereby saving money. However, it makes companies vulnerable to disruptions in their supply chain. Factory assembly lines grind to a halt and shelves go empty when parts and goods aren’t delivered on time.

Public opinion is also an increasingly powerful tool, although it can be a double-edged sword for unions. In some countries the press has a tendency to portray unions as self-serving, turning public sympathy away from workers forced into taking legitimate industrial action. However, there is a greater awareness and intolerance by consumers of labour abuses, forcing companies to invest in protecting their brands from adverse publicity. To date, the ethical debate has focused squarely on how goods are produced, without acknowledging the role of transport workers in moving them around the world, or the conditions they work under. It is an omission that needs challenging.

Solidarity between unions is a time-honoured tradition and a sound foundation for the next step forward in union campaigning. It will be a necessary step in a rapidly globalising world, where decisions affecting workers are influenced by many different actors and factors, some beyond their immediate reach.

Like business, unions need to be able to spread their influence across borders and sectors and to take strategic and joint action, making use of any and all opportunities available to organise workers and to build our collective strength.

There are of course practical problems that need to be overcome, including how we develop campaigns that link the local to the global in a realistic way, given the generally limited resources and capacity of many unions and global union federations. However, we have as a movement overcome far greater challenges.

Blue Diamond organising committee member, Larry Newsome, commented at the end of the recent International Day of Action:

“My brothers and sisters at Blue Diamond are demanding a change and we will show them they cannot crush our faith or keep us from bonding. Blue Diamond has met some people that will take a stand and not back down.”

These are the kind of values the future of trade unionism depends upon and, reinforced by international solidarity, they are truly a force to be reckoned with.

Sharon James is assistant dockers’ secretary at the ITF.

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Issue 23 April 2006

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