Washington, DC
In California, 20,000 strawberry workers are struggling for justice and dignity in the workplace. They are organizing for decent working conditions like clean drinking water and restrooms, for a living wage, for job security, health insurance and an end to sexual harassment.
To win these basic rights that have been denied to them by their employers, strawberry workers have begun an industry-wide organizing campaign with the United Farm Workers of America.
In response to the workers' determination to end decades of exploitation in the fields, the strawberry industry and its allies have launched a vicious anti-union campaign marked by lies, firings, intimidation and even violence. Its purpose is to confuse, frighten and terrorize workers to force them to give up their effort to organize. As one of its tactics, the strawberry industry has threatened not to rehire union supporters for the 1997 harvesting season unless they stop supporting the campaign.
Despite the war being waged against them, thousands of strawberry workers have courageously signed cards in support of the UFW. They have given birth to the national Strawberry Workers Campaign, in which thousands of workers are speaking out, telling other workers across the country about the conditions they endure and about their desire to exercise their right to organize a union and improve life for themselves and their families.
To help focus public attention on the struggle, the United Farm Workers have called for a Strawberry Workers March for Fairness on April 13, 1997, in Watsonville, Calif., the heart of strawberry country. The strawberry workers will demand that they and their co-workers be rehired in 1997. They are asking that their call for the most basic human, social and economic justice be heard, and they are standing up for the right of every worker
to organize without fear of retaliation or intimidation by an employer. They deserve the support of the entire labor movement.
Through support for this march, the labor movement can show the strawberry industry -- and all of corporate America -- that workers will not be daunted or deterred from their determination to organize.
The AFL-CIO Executive Council urges all affiliated unions, its state federation and its local central bodies to participate in the strawberry workers march on April 13 in Watsonville, and to encourage their members and their families to turn out in massive numbers to support the UFW and the strawberry workers in this struggle for justice.