Unrest in the Canneries

...Since succeeding in that effort, the Teamsters have imposed a regimen on the canneries that has tolerated' little opposition from the workers...

...Not only are the Teamsters worried about their power base in the canneries...

...However, the militancy generated by the struggle of the UFW to organize in the fields has spilled back into the canneries, and the rank and file there has again begun to organize itself...

...Cannery workers employed by Del Monte and other food-processing giants in Northern California face a major stumbling block in their efforts to gain decent wages and safe working conditions: the leadership of the Teamsters Union, which holds a contract with the billion dollar industry...

...Workers on the sorting belts (almost all women) stand for hours on end in a mixture of fruit, water, oil, and broken glass...

...Labor Department statistics show cannery work to be one of the most dangerous occupations in the country...

...As with the agricultural corporations in the fields, the wealth of the food processing giants is built largely on the exploitation of the women and minority workers who make up the majority of the workforce...

...To that thought, San Jose cannery activist Pete Naranjo adds, "There will be changes, there's no getting around it...

...Thus far two efforts have been made, in San Jose and Sacramento, to elect a rank and file slate of officers in the local unions...

...Neither election challenge succeeded, but through educational work around the Committees' program the organizing base was expanded for future efforts...

...Loss of hearing from the deafening noise of constantly clattering cans is a common problem, and loss of fingers and even arms in unguarded machinery is also frequent...

...Most of the 70,000 workers who find jobs in California canneries at the peak of summer harvest are employed only seasonally, sometimes only three months out of the year...

...Meanwhile the Committees are also continuing to organize on the health and safety fronts...

...CWC chairman Ruben Reyes points to the fact that the Committees' work has brought many improvements in the day to day conditions in the plants, but adds, "We have a long way to go, a long way...

...On the other hand, the order has created a storm of protest among the white male workers, who feel their privileged position threatened from below...

...On the other hand, the handful of maintenance and repair jobs, which provide year-round work at considerably higher wages, are dominated almost exclusively by white men...

...A network of Cannery Workers Committees has developed in the major cannery centers, led by Chicanos, but also involving Blacks, Asians, and progressive white workers...

...In the long run, Committee activists recognize theneed to take power in the Teamster locals as the fundamental first step towards improving the lives of the workers...

...Eventually these locals will again be controlled by the people who work in the canneries...

...The Committees have a health and safety program that begins with the demand for a worker committee in each plant with power to shut down unsafe machinery, a demand that the Teamsters refuse to press for in contract negotiations...

...For Del Monte and the other canners, a union controlled by the rank and file will mean the challenge of a work force willing to demand its rights...

...The handwriting is on the wall, and the officials know it...

...Pressure from the Cannery Workers Committee and other activists, however, has gradually forced a series of reforms on the canneries and the Teamsters...

...Their organizing program is focused on demands for an end to the pervasive discrimination which has kept women and minority workers in the lower-paid seasonal jobs, better health and safety protection in the plants, and democracy in the cannery locals...

...The Teamsters got those contracts in much the same way they have attempted to enter the agricultural fields to break the United Farm Workers union, coming in during the 1930s and 1940s at the invitation of the companies to break left-wing unions...

...In San Jose, national Teamster officials tried to block the challenge in 1974 by refusing the committee's demand for a peak season election...

...We've gotten the people interested in the union and how it runs, and that's the most important thing...

...The threat of a suit finally forced Teamster President Fitzsimmons to partially relent, but the election was set for a late September date when only half the work force was present...

...Advancing from the lower-paid seasonal work to the higher-paid year-around work has been virtually impossible for the women and minority workers...

...Both the canners and the Teamsters have a common interest in undermining the CWC...

...Bob Barber...

...These culminated early in 1976 with the implementation of a federal court order which shuffled the seniority system and created quotas for women and minority workers in the higher-paid jobs...

...At its San Jose plant, Del Monte officials demonstrated their support for the Teamsters by allowing incumbents to pass out literature in the plant, while intimidating the Committee organizers...

...In their efforts to stop the court order they are fanning racial tensions and anti-women sentiments among the workers, and have created an explosive situation for which there is no short range solution that will satisfy everyone...

...The Cannery Workers Committees are using the court order to expand their organizing base and to help workers take advantage of the new opportunities, even though its enforcement mechanisms are weak...

...Eight years ago they were physically pushing people around, and now people are standing up to them...

...They also recognize that a union controlled by the rank and file would be a natural ally of the United Farm Workers, who the Teamsters see as their rival for representing California field workers...

...Seventy percent of them earn less than the federally-defined poverty level of $3500...