Boycott started in Mexico, US
15 mins ago JMR Mexico 0
BAJA CALIFORNIA
The News
Laborers from San Quintín Valley, Baja California, announced that farm worker organizations in Mexico and the United States began a boycott against Driscoll’s last Friday. Driscoll’s is one of the world’s principal strawberry producers.
The Indigenous Front for Binational Organizations, the Union of Neighborhoods in Los Angeles and the Mixteco Project of California called on their members to join in the boycott to demand better working conditions for field workers.
“We are calling on everyone to join in the boycott against Driscoll’s and all other companies that profit from our labor,” the organizations said in a joint press release.
The spokesman for the Alliance of National, State and Municipal Organization for Social Justice, Fidel Sánchez Gabriel, said that these actions are being taken to ensure that the government does not ignore the demands of people earning less than 150 pesos per day ($9.85), without benefits or decent housing.
The alliance, which represents farm and field workers, reached 64 agreements which increased salaries by 15 percent and asked its members to return to work so dialogues with companies can continue.
Sánchez explained that Gov. Vega de la Madrid tried to save face in a speech and put his administration in the public’s good graces.
The workers have returned to work, but the salary increase is still forthcoming and precarious working conditions still exist.
As part of the boycott, the laborers marched at 7 a.m. over the trans-peninsular highway to the government offices of San Quintín, where the group is now camped.
The demonstrations began last Saturday in Oxnard, California, where Driscoll’s headquarters are located.
The boycott is directed at Driscoll is because the company sets the rules, salary and working conditions for the rest of the companies to follow, Sánchez said.
