There is a critical need today and tomorrow (Sept 16 & 17) and beyond to call Sakuma Brothers Farms and demand that they negotiate a contract with the farm workers and their organizing committee, Familias Unidas por la Justicia. The berries are ready to pick, the berry pickers are on strike, and Sakuma Bros Farms is refusing to negotiate.
PLEASE MAKE CALLS NOW!
Sakuma Bros. Farm
(360)757-6611
Follow the struggle & get updates on the Facebook page for call-in support, Boycott Sakuma Berries website, and at Community to Community’s Facebook Page
Get in touch with CAGJ’s Food Justice Project to find out more about CAGJ’s support and upcoming actions or call-in days you can get involved in.
Find out more about the strike, additional actions and ways to support, donation information (also included below) and more at Community to Community’s homepage
Recent update on the Sakuma Bros. Farm struggle:
Last week, indigenous and Latin@ workers at Sakuma Brothers Farms held two sit down strikes, achieving small wage increases. But they want more – they want a contract that can’t be reneged. Sakuma Farms fired Ramon Torres, the president of the farmworkers’ organization, the very next day. Since then Sakuma workers have been on strike.
This morning, Ryan Sakuma came to labor camp 2 and informed the farmworkers that those who were planning to strike today needed to pack up their belongings from the labor camp and come to the Sakuma Field office to pick up their severance paycheck.
The farmworkers at labor camp 2 told Ryan Sakuma that they were not going to work, they were on strike until he reinstated Familias Unidas por la Justicia’s Ramon Torres, and that if he planned to evict them he had to return their cabin deposits ($450) today to all of the farmworkers.
Ryan Sakuma said that he would not rehire Ramon Torres. Ryan Sakuma said that he could not return all of the farm worker’s security deposits ($450 per family). He said that Ramon’s security deposit was returned to him when he was fired because it was planned.
Ryan Sakuma said that he is no longer negotiating the matter, that all exchanges will be going through his lawyer.
Farmworkers will be rallying today, Sept. 16. Please call Sakuma Bros. Farm and encourage them to do the right thing and not displace entire families. Come in person to rally with the farmworkers as they enter a new stage in their labor struggle for a contract that would make them more secure in their jobs as pickers.
