Background:
The Blue Diamond workers took their first public action by marching together in Sacramento’s 2005 César Chávez parade. They have joined the march every year since. This year, the thousands who walk to honor the United Farm Workers founder stopped at the Blue Diamond Growers (BDG) plant and rally to support the almond workers’ fight for a free and fair union vote.
Students stage artful action at BDG
Some 500 members of M.E.Ch.A. (Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán) rallied in front of the Blue Diamond Growers plant March 21 during the group’s national conference. They also took up chalk and paint to cover the pavement with drawings and messages of support for the Blue Diamond workers. The two blocks leading to the plant’s main gate bloomed with solidarity greetings from as far away as Pennsylvania, Colorado and Arizona.
M.E.Ch.A., the nation’s largest Chicano student organization, also committed to spread word of the Blue Diamond workers’ union fight through its chapters around the country. If Blue Diamond has not agreed to ground rules for a free and fair vote by the group’s next national conference, it will consider a boycott.
Blue Diamond did its best to keep the workers from seeing this colorful and energetic show of support. Management closed the plant on Good Friday for the first time in at least 20 years — and sent leads out to wash the street before workers returned the next day.
BDG gives Sacto activists the brush-off — and they push back Blue Diamond CEO Doug Youngdahl let two months lapse before responding to the letter sent by Communities Organizing Support for Blue Diamond Workers (COS-BDW) after the group’s November forum. COS asked the company to take some simple steps to ensure a fair vote on union representation: hold the vote in a neutral spot outside the plant, like a school or church; promise there would be no harassment or intimidation; allow union reps access to the plant so workers could hear both sides; and have neutral observers monitor the election process. Youngdahl’s Feb. 5 letter disrespectfully dismissed the community’s concerns. "A meeting concerning the Communities Organizing Support for Blue Diamond Workers letter would not be an appropriate forum at which to address this matter," he said.
A COS delegation went to the plant March 13 demanding that Doug show due accountability. The group included Joan B. Lee from the Gray Panthers, Sac State professor emeritus Manny Gale, Edgar Hilbert from ACORN, Linda Roberts from the Older Women’s League, Nell Ranta, and Guambry Santillan from LCLAA (Labor Council for Latin American Advancement.)
Doug "wasn’t there," so HR honcho George Johnson came out to talk with the group. He kept them standing in the cold as he smirked and said he’d carry their message to Doug. Joan Lee led the group in a loud chorus of "Don’t say no!" as they walked away.
Read how the Sacramento News and Review talked about BDG’s non-response: http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/Content?oid=637851
Sacto City Council will vote Tuesday, April 1 on new help for BDG workers
No fooling! In December 2006 the Council called on Blue Diamond to sign a neutrality agreement with the ILWU so the workers could make a free and unpressured decision on union representation. BDG’s response? Nothing. Nada. Zip. Pretty nervy for a company that took millions in taxpayer dollars back in 1995, in exchange for its promise to stay in town. Now the Council is going to consider creating an ad hoc committee to work with BDG and the union to figure out a decision-making process both sides could agree on.
If you’re in town, join the Blue Diamond workers April 1 at 6 p.m. at City Hall, 915 I St., Sacramento.
Let your mouse do the walking?
You can also join us without having to leave home. Send Blue Diamond CEO Doug Youngdahl an e-mail telling him you support a free and fair vote for Blue Diamond workers. Let him know "A vote for a union should be as fair as a vote for mayor!"
Below, you’ll find some text you can use if you like. Just copy it, click on this e-mail address
http://www.bluediamond.com/contact/index.cfm?l_categoryid=1 paste and send!
We think the workers at Blue Diamond deserve to have their secret vote AND FAIR PLAY TOO. We agree with the members of Communities Organizing Support for Blue Diamond Workers (COS-BDW). Please sign on to the fair rules they propose:
* hold the vote in a neutral location away from the plant, such as a school or church;
* give the union and the management equal access to talk to workers who will vote;
* have both sides agree not to harass or intimidate voters;
* have impartial observers would oversee the vote itself, and set up community oversight of the whole election process.
PLEASE DON’T SAY GOODBYE!
We’re sending you this update because you signed up on the ILWU list, or took action to support the Blue Diamond workers. If you don’t want to get any more e-mails about this campaign, please let us know, but we hope you will choose to stay connected with us.
THANKS…AND SI, SE PUEDE!
