Low-Wage Movement Strikes Fast Food Processing at Taylor Farms
It was still dark as Julian Camacho flagged down workers driving in for their shift. One by one, he handed them a leaflet while dozens of picketers crisscrossed the parking lot entrance, chanting in the morning chill before the sun rose over Tracy, California.
Julian knows these people. He used to work alongside them – cutting, washing, packaging, and loading salads and other food for Taylor Farms, the largest supplier of fresh-cut produce in the country.
But when Julian became involved in a campaign to organize a union at his plant, the company fired him.
“I was fired after four years of working at Taylor Farms,” he said. “We have the right to stand up and organize for better working conditions, but Taylor Farms clearly does not respect that and it doesn’t respect its workers – they just want to silence us.”
Julian isn’t alone. He joined hundreds of other workers and supporters for a one-day strike against unfair labor practices on December 19. Like Julian, two other workers have been terminated for their union support. Among the workers at the company’s two plants in Tracy, a large majority have signed union cards. They say they deserve more than poverty wages and the mistreatment that management inflicts on its workforce.
Much like the fast-food and retail employees whose protests for living wages have spread across the country, Julian and Taylor Farms workers are part of a national wave of unrest against low wages in the food industry. The only thing that sets Taylor Farms workers apart from striking McDonald’s and Walmart workers is their position in the industry’s supply chain. They supply food to McDonald’s, Walmart and other major fast-food establishments, retailers, chain restaurants and grocers. These workers are unseen to consumers and all the more vulnerable to the heavy hand of abusive employers.
What makes Taylor Farms workers even more vulnerable is their position as immigrants, both documented and undocumented. The company has been keen on using that against its workers ever since they started organizing with Teamsters Local 601. Workers in Tracy report being threatened with deportation, E-Verify and other forms of immigration enforcement in retaliation for their union support.
UNFAIR LABOR PRACTICES AND OTHER INDIGNITIES
On the picket line, workers and supporters brandished signs and banners that read “We Will Not Be Silenced” and “Stop the War on Immigrant Workers.” Julian was later joined by Brandon, a young man who has been working at Taylor Farms for ten years. He started working on the plant’s onion line when he was 9 years old. Brandon wants to go to school, but the company changes his schedule every time he tries to schedule classes.
Taylor Farms workers want more than a living wage. They want respect and dignity in the workplace. Instead, they endure unsafe working conditions and the company’s routine termination of workers who are injured on the job.
The company denies basic accommodations to pregnant workers, forcing one woman to resign and lose six months of wages while she scraped by on food stamps. Another worker is reduced to living out of his car so that he can afford out-of-pocket costs for his daughter’s health care. Still others are denied protective gear, causing gagging and other health problems for workers exposed to chemical fumes. The company often denies workers their meal breaks and pressures them against using the restroom during their shift.
The union has filed charges for hundreds of ULP violations committed by the company at both plants in Tracy. With decades of experience in union drives across many industries, organizers on the campaign say the sheer volume of ULP violations committed by Taylor Farms is overwhelming and perhaps even unprecedented.