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The United Farm Workers is a union with roots in farm labor organizing going back to the late 1950s. Founded by Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez, the UFW has successfully fought for labor rights for farmworkers in grape, strawberry, apple, citrus, date, almond, mushroom, vegetable, and flower industries. They won the first genuine collective bargaining agreement between farm workers and growers in the history of the continental United States in 1966. Their many achievements also include the first union contracts requiring rest periods, clean drinking water, hand washing facilities, protective clothing against pesticide exposure, banning pesticide straying while workers are in the fields, and outlawing DDT and other dangerous pesticides.

Their website has information about their current labor struggles, boycotts against grape, strawberry, and mushroom companies, action alerts on guestworker legislation, an informative listserve, farmworker history, their Spanish-language radio stations, and a listing of companies that sell union-produced wine, flowers, vegetables and fruits.

Northwest Treeplanters and Farmworkers United/PCUN

farmworkerunion@pcun.org

PCUN (Pineiros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste) is Oregon's union of farmworkers, nursery and reforestation workers, and Oregon's largest Latino organization with over 4,500 members. Agriculture in Oregon is a three billion dollar business and Oregon ranks among the top three states nationally in the production of at least 13 commodities (including berries, grass seed, pears, cherries, hops, mint, onions, cauliflower, and Christmas trees). PCUN's many projects include field organizing and public education for farmworker labor rights, a project to stop pesticide poisoning, a women's project, English classes, and the development of farmworker-controlled housing.

PCUN is currently promoting a boycott of NORPAC Foods, a grower owned food processor with revenues of $260 million a year. The NORPAC member growers have steadfastly refused to negotiate with farmworkers employed on their farms, much less recognize the union of the farmworkers' choosing. The boycott's goal is achieve collective bargaining agreements for farmworkers employed on NORPAC member farms. For an action kit on how to get your school or other institution to stop purchasing NORPAC products, contact Rebecca Saldana at rjsaldana@writeme.com

Farm Labor Organizing Committee, AFL-CIO

FLOC is a union of migrant and seasonal farmworkers in the Midwest, founded in 1967 by Baldemar Velásquez. FLOC and its supporters in the religious community, organized labor, and local volunteer committees around the country carried on an eight-year strike and boycott against Campbell Soup. In 1986, FLOC signed historic contracts with Campbell Soup and Vlasic and their tomato and pickle growers in Ohio and Michigan, and later with Heinz, Green Bay, and Aunt Jane's corporations and their pickle growers in the same region.

Focusing new efforts on North Caroline, FLOC officially launched a boycott of Mt. Olive Pickles on St Patrick's Day in 1999. The union's efforts are geared to force company officials to bargain a contract to improve wages and conditions for the estimated 5,000 migrant farmworkers who harvest its cucumbers in eastern North Carolina. For more information about how to support the Mt. Olive Pickle Boycott, contact floc@topaz.iupui.edu.

International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 890

Teamsters Local 890 was founded in 1943, and currently represents over 12,000 workers throughout Central and Southern California and Southwestern Arizona, primarily in food processing. Their membership also includes vegetable field workers, as well as workers in construction, freight, retail delivery and sales, UPS, and the laundry industry. As their membership is nearly half female and overwhelmingly Latino, they also work to help their members become citizens through The Citizenship Project.

In February 2000, Local 890 initiated a boycott of Basic Vegetable and its parent company, Basic American Foods. Basic's dried vegetable products (potatoes, beans, and spices) are used in schools, hospitals, jails and other large facilities across the country. Students have shown solidarity by passing Boycott Basic Resolutions through their student government, residence halls associations and by approaching their campus administrators and requesting that these products be removed from campus cafeterias and dormitories. For information on how to support the boycott, email ibt890@pacbell.net.

Coalition of Immokalee Workers

The CIW is a community-based worker organization whose members are largely Mexican, Guatemalan, Haitian immigrants as well as African-Americans working in low-wage jobs throughout the Southwest Florida region. Southwest Florida is the state's most important center for agricultural production, and Immokalee is the state's largest farmworker community. As such, the majority of the members are farmworkers who spend 8-9 months of the year here in Southwest Florida then travel north on the season during the summer months.

The CIW is currently struggling for a living wage for tomato pickers whose produce is purchased by corporations such as Taco Bell and Burger King. For information on how to support the union's efforts write CoaImmWkr@aol.com.