Farm workers at state’s largest dairy denounce U.S. subsidies backing anti-union activities
Farm workers at the dairies located at Threemile Canyon Farms dairies who have been organizing for seven months with the United Farm Workers of America are denouncing anti-union coercion and intimidation by a company receiving heavy federal subsidies. A recently released report from the Environmental Working Group indicates the dairies are the top recipient of U.S. dairy subsidies in Oregon. Hundreds of thousands dollars in federal assistance went to the dairy last year alone.
So the workers and the Cesar Chavez-founded UFW are urging public officials who direct tax dollars to the dairy to bring its owners to the negotiating table. Ignacio Carrillo, a worker at the dairy, called on the “state and federal governments and the banks to not finance Columbia River Dairy until they agree to deal with the issues that we have, because they may very well use that money to fire us.”
Dairy workers have complained about management retaliating against pro-union workers by suspending them and physically isolating them from other workers. The company has imported anti-union consultants to meet with workers. “The company’s campaign against us is based on lies,” Carrillo says. The consultants claim “that there have been a lot of changes, but the truth is that they haven’t happened. The consultants have met with three to four workers at a time in small rooms. A man named Richard, he is [a] consultant, told us that in Oregon there is no law which allows there to be a union.”
In its latest move, dairy management is now circulating an anti-union petition for workers to sign. “If the company was truly interested in gauging worker support for a union, they would allow an open and fair union representation election. To circulate a petition on the clock using supervisors is coercive and violates national and international labor standars,” says Erik Nicholson, Pacific Northwest regional coordinator for the UFW.
Steve Witte, executive director of the Oregon Farm Worker Ministry says, “These workers provide milk for retailers and processors throughout the Pacific Northwest. Not only is it unconscionable to think that the dairy has gone to such extreme measures to keep workers from having a union, but it is outright immoral to realize that these agro-industrialist owners are receiving such significant federal aid in addition to the support they’ve already received from the state of Oregon.”
According to a recently released report from the Environmental Working Group, the three dairies located at Threemile Canyon Farms cumulatively received more than double in U.S. Department of Agriculture subsidy payments than any other Oregon dairy. In 2002, Columbia River Dairy and Gary Te Velde, owner of Willow Creek Dairy, together took in $219,348 worth of dairy program subsidies. According to the report, Columbia River Dairy owners R.D. Offutt and the Bos family have received hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal subsidies for their operations in other states since 1995. Te Velde, operator of Willow Creek Dairy, is the Bos’ son in law.
In addition to the federal subsidies, the state of Oregon has provided $20 million in private activity bond monies to help establish the dairies.
Dairy workers have been organizing for the past seven months and asked the UFW to represent them. To date, however, the dairy has refused to negotiate.
The United Farm Workers of America is the largest farm worker union in the United States. The Washington office of the UFW is coordinating this campaign. – end –