Unionist Calls For Food Services Boycott

In a talk that drew about 30 students yesterday, Ramon Ramirez, President of Pineros Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste (PCUN), an Oregon farmworkers’ union with around 5,000 members encouraged audience members to boycott Sodhexo-Marriott, the food service provider to both the Law School and the Kennedy School of Government.

The Progressive Student Labor Movement (PSLM), in conjunction with the Boston Student Labor Action Project (SLAP) hosted the talk titled “Sweatshops in the Fields.”

“We have Third World conditions, slavery conditions [in the fields]. They’re living and working in this counry,” Ramirez said during his address.

The talk, which lasted about an hour and attracted mostly Harvard students, focused on the actions that PCUN has taken in the Oregon area to further the rights of farm workers.

According to Ramirez, laws on the books that prevented farmworkers from organizing were a form of racism.

“To fight for farmworkers’ rights is to fight against institutional racism,” Ramirez said.

Ramirez also discussed what students can do for the cause of farmworkers’ rights. He urged students to vote against corporations that abused farm labor, specifically NORPAC, an Oregon cooperative that sells fruits and vegetables harvested by underpaid farm workers—PCUN’s boycott of NORPAC originated in 1992 and has had several success in recent years.

Currently, PCUN is organizing a boycott of Sodhexo-Marriott which purchases goods from NORPAC.

“This university is able to provide food to its students at the expense of the farm worker,” said Ramirez.

Daisy Pitkin, the National Coordinator of Campaign for Labor Rights, also made several remarks regarding the success of the boycotts. Companies like Gardenburger and Bon Appetit have complied and cut their contracts with NORPAC, Pitkin said.

PCUN was founded in 1985 to help organize farmworkers. Taking inspiration from Caesar Chavez, the organization helped a group of farmworkers sign the first collective bargaining agreement with growers in 1987.

“Collective bargaining is really important because you give the workers a say in the workplace,” Ramirez told the audience.

The forum signaled a move by the PSLM to take an interest in farmworkers’ issues according to organizer Madeleine S. Elfenbein ’04.

According to Elfenbein, PSLM and SLAP organized the event to raise awareness about farm workers and their working conditions, a situation that most students in the Northeast have no experience with.