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The Rice Thresher
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by Meredith Jenkins thresher staff Representatives of the Northwest Treeplanters and Farmworkers United union encouraged students to boycott NORPAC Foods, Inc., a large provider of fruits and vegetables, at a meeting Tuesday night. Organized by Rice Students for Global Justice, the meeting took place in Kelley Lounge of the Student Center and featured Efrain Peņa, a union organizer and former NORPAC farmworker, and Rebecca Saldaņa, also associated with the union. The two are on a speaking tour and came to Rice to describe the working conditions of farmworkers. Their goal was to gain support for a boycott of NORPAC, a farmer-owned cooperative in Oregon. "We don't have the power to make the growers really listen to the workers except through the boycott," Saldaņa said. "That's why we're here and not in the fields today." Saldaņa began by describing Northwest Treeplanters and Farmworkers United and the services it provides. The union was organized in 1985 with 80 workers and now represents over 4,500 farmworkers in Oregon. "Our mission has been to empower and educate workers to improve their lives," Saldaņa said. Peņa talked about emigrating from Mexico with his uncle in 1993 and working on several large farms in Oregon. He described working conditions at farms and labor camps where many migrant workers lived. Peņa worked applying pesticides to fields for four years and said his training consisted of watching a video explaining how to use safety equipment. However, Peņa said, the video was in English even though most of the farm workers in Oregon speak only Spanish. Peņa also said his employer did not provide him with the safety equipment described in the video and he had to buy his own mask and filter. Other workers who didn't have safety equipment often suffered from allergies such as rashes and watery eyes. Peņa tried to organize his co-workers to demand better conditions, but he couldn't convince people to join him. "Finally, the thing [my co-workers] always told me was, 'We don't want to get fired. It's not that we don't want change. It's that if we speak up, they will fire us,'" Peņa said. His co-workers did encourage him to continue demanding better conditions because he could afford to risk his job - he did not have a family to worry about. "That was the thing that pushed me to do something - understanding that my co-workers were thinking how to change but at the same time that they can't act," Peņa said. In Peņa's second year of farm work, he met a union organizer in a labor camp. "I was listening to him, and that was really interesting to know someone that was working to change the conditions for farm workers," Peņa said. The organizer provided him with better training equipment and information about pesticides. From the organizer, Peņa also learned about the health risks, such as cancer, associated with pesticides. When Peņa asked how he could help change conditions, the organizer told him about the boycott on NORPAC products. After Peņa became involved in union work to promote the boycott, his employer retaliated by cutting his hours and making him work for piece rate instead of an hourly wage. Soon, his employers began to isolate him from other workers to prevent him from talking to them about the union, Peņa said. He was eventually fired in 1997. Soon after, the Northwest Treeplanters and Farmworkers United union asked Peņa to work as an organizer for them. Now, Peņa travels to farms and tries to convince workers of the need for a union and collective bargaining. "I go to the fields, talk to farm workers and explain to them why it's important to have a union, why it's important to have collective bargaining because that's the main thing," Peņa said. "I'm asking the students to help us with this boycott because you guys have the power." After Peņa spoke, Saldaņa explained how university students can help the boycott. "What we're looking for is for students to find out who your food service provider is, ... to work with them to find out where your processed fruits and vegetables come from," Saldaņa said. "Depending on who your [food service] company is, they're going to have alternatives most likely because they're huge, but if not, then you would say, 'Look, we want to keep your contract, though we need to find an alternative,'" Saldaņa said. "If you find out that the only product you're getting from NORPAC is some green beans or some corn, then maybe as a student body your decision is that you're just not going to have that product on campus because they can't find an alternative." Peņa and Saldaņa also distributed a petition against NORPAC. Will Rice College junior Wally Upp, who organized the meeting, said he first became interested in the union through his church in his home state of Oregon. He spent time with workers on Oregon farms last summer. "It was a real eye-opener for me because we've all heard about sweatshop workers in other countries, but it was shocking to find out it has happened a half hour from my home for generations," Upp said. About 20 people attended the meeting. Most attendees responded favorably to the idea of a boycott. "I think it's great they're doing a speaking tour, and I hope they get lots of support across the country," Wiess College senior Miranda Sielaff said. "Obviously, the boycott is a huge part of their struggle." Sid Richardson College junior Gabe Rivera agreed. "I'm shocked that these conditions still exist," he said. "I think it's great that unions such as these are being organized because that's the only way these workers will be heard." NORPAC sells some products under its own name, but most are repackaged under different corporations' names. The stamp code on food packaging identifies its producer. For products in bags, NORPAC goods have a stamp code beginning with a 5. For products in cans, NORPAC goods have a stamp code beginning with an 'E'.w
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