PCUN Suspends 10-year Boycott of Norpack Foods

Labor Alerts: a service of Campaign for Labor Rights

CLR Labor Alert posted February 15, 2002

In this alert:

• PCUN Suspends 10-year Boycott of NORPAC Foods
• Thank You, Students

PCUN SUSPENDS 10-YEAR BOYCOTT OF NORPAC FOODS

After ten years of boycotting NORPAC, the Oregon farmworkers' union, PCUN, has suspended their campaign against the company. Last night, the union and the company reached an agreement to "create a framework for managing farm labor relations."

Below is a Press Release jointly sent by Ramon Ramirez, President of PCUN, and Rick Jacobson, CEO of NORPAC Foods, Inc.

Oregon Farm Worker Union "PCUN" and NORPAC Foods, Inc. Create Framework for Managing Farm Labor Relations.
Governor Kitzhaber helps PCUN and NORPAC Foods, Oregon's largest food processor, reach agreement.

Salem, OR-As a result of a two-week mediation effort conducted at the request of Governor John Kitzhaber, Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste (PCUN), and NORPAC Foods, Inc. jointly announced today an agreement that will result in labor relations guidelines for farm workers and farmers. The parties will define the specifics for these guidelines in a process they have committed to complete by early May. Additionally, under the agreement, PCUN suspended its boycott of NORPAC products.

NORPAC is a cooperative of 240 Willamette Valley growers of fruits and vegetables. PCUN (Northwest Treeplanters and Farmworkers United) is a union of farmworkers, nursery and reforestation workers based in Woodburn.

The innovative agreement - still subject to ratification by NORPAC's board of directors - is a direct result of Governor Kitzhaber's concern about the future well-being of Oregon agriculture, including farm workers and growers.

Ramon Ramirez, president of PCUN, and Rick Jacobson, president and CEO of NORPAC Foods both said the joint agreement holds the promise of a new era in farm labor relations between NORPAC and PCUN in Oregon.

"This is an historic accomplishment for farm workers, who will now have clear and enforceable guidelines that provide them with an opportunity to elect PCUN to represent them," said Ramirez. "If they do elect to join PCUN, it also establishes a framework for contract negotiations with the participating NORPAC member-growers."

"We are extremely pleased with what we've worked out so far because it provides a regulated, fair process that the growers and farm workers are involved in," said Jacobson. "I appreciate that PCUN has cooperated with us in developing a framework that will bring benefits to farm workers and NORPAC's participating family farmers."

Governor Kitzhaber's mediation process was in part encouraged by the involvement of one of NORPAC's major customers. Sodexho, the leading provider of food and facilities management in the U.S. and Canada, became involved when PCUN asked them to support its boycott. Sodexho sent a senior executive to Oregon to investigate the situation and then issued a letter urging PCUN and NORPAC to resolve their dispute.

The mediation has been taking place under the direction of the National Consensus Center (NCC) at Portland State University with the involvement of NCC Director Greg Wolf and Mediator Paul F. Stuckenschneider of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service.

The agriculture industry in Oregon is exempt from State and Federal collective bargaining laws. Because of this exemption, and in an effort to provide collective bargaining for some of Oregon's farm labor force, PCUN called for a boycott of NORPAC products in 1992. NORPAC has maintained that in order for a representation and collective bargaining process to be fair to workers and farmers, there had to be a framework of protective rules for all parties. Both NORPAC and PCUN said today that the current agreement is an important step in the right direction toward providing those guidelines.

THANK YOU, STUDENTS

CLR's work with PCUN has been called our "Stop Sweatshops in the Fields" Campaign. We launched this campaign in conjunction with PCUN in 1999.

Since that time, we have completed several extensive speaking tours to campuses that use(d) NORPAC products in their dining halls. The campaign draws parallels between the conditions faced by apparel workers in sweatshops with those faced by commercial agricultural workers in the fields of the US. In both environments, workers endure long hours in physically dangerous environments for low pay and find it difficult to organize or speak up about substandard conditions for fear of being fired.

The speaking tours have not only gotten the word out about the NORPAC boycott to student labor activists, but have also spurred activism on the campuses we visited. This activism has resulted in a number of companies either cutting their contracts with NORPAC or actively pressuring NORPAC to negotiate with the union.

Campaign for Labor Rights would like to extend a hearty congratulations and thank you to all of the students across the country who have participated in this campaign over the last several years. Through your work, and the clear results your work has gained, you have illustrated that when students are organized around an issue, they certainly have the power to affect change.

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