The Story of PCUN and the Farmworker Movement in Oregon Revised edition by Lynn Stephen in collaboration with PCUN staff members Center for Latino/a and Latin American Studies (CLLAS) The STory of PCUN aNd The farmworker movement iN oregoN Revised and Expanded by Lynn Stephen in collaboration with PCUN staff and members Center for Latino/a and Latin American Studies (CLLAS) Eugene, Oregon July 2012 Front cover photograph: Mural in the meeting hall of PCUN’s Risberg Hall headquarters, Woodburn, Oregon. Title page photograph: Tenth Anniversary Organizing Campaign, Brooks, Oregon, June 1995. Back cover: Mural on back wall of the meeting hall of PCUN’s Risberg Hall headquarters, Woodburn, Oregon. © Lynn Stephen and pCUn, 2012 Written by Lynn Stephen in collaboration with PCUN staff and members Center for Latino/a and Latin American Studies (CLLAS) 6201 University of Oregon Eugene, OR 97403-6201 (541)346-5286 [email protected] http://cllas.uoregon.edu July 2012 Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste (PCUN) 300 Young Street Woodburn OR 97071 (503) 982-0243 www.pcun.org [email protected] Production Alice Evans Research Dissemination Specialist Center for Latino/a and Latin American Studies Proofing Eli Meyer, Assistant Director, CLLAS June Koehler, Research Assistant, CLLAS All photographs credited to PCUN unless otherwise noted The University of Oregon is an equal-opportunity, affirmative- action institution committed to cultural diversity and compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. This publication will be made available in accessible formats upon request. 750 CopieS 2 The Story of PCUN and the Farmworker Movement in Oregon Child in the field, 1995. contents Acknowledgements 5 PArt 3 16 IntroductIon 6 ESTABLisHing a union anD broaDening its base (1985 –1988) PArt 1 8 The Founding of PCUN in 1985 16 Mexican Labor becoMes DoMinant in oregon agricuLture (1942 – 1976) The 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act: Helping Farmworkers Apply for Amnesty 17 Early Mexican Farmworkers, the Bracero Program, and the Beginning of INS Raids in Oregon 8 Project to Stop Pesticide Poisoning 18 Initial Organizational Efforts to Serve Farmworkers in Oregon: Churches in the 1950s 10 PArt 4 19 tHe struggLe TO acHieVe coLLectiVe Early Political and Labor Organizing for Farmworkers: bargaining becoMes centraL (1988 – 1991) 1960–1977 10 PCUN Moves Out of Amnesty Work and Focuses on PArt 2 12 Raising Wages for Farmworkers 19 iMMigrant rigHts organiZing: setting tHe The Legal Struggle for Collective Bargaining Rights FounDation For Pcun (1977 – 1984) and the Right to Picket 19 Colegio César Chávez and the Creation of the La Hora Campesina: Bringing Radio to PCUN Members 20 Willamette Valley Immigration Project (WVIP) 12 The Ongoing Struggle to Raise Farmworker Wages: Working with Reforestation Workers 14 Making Concrete Gains for Workers 20 Opposing Efforts to Reinvent the Bracero Program Continued Steps Towards Collective Bargaining: in the 1980s 15 A Hiring Hall and Oregon’s First-Ever Union- Organized Farmworker Strike 21 cllas.uoregon.edu 3 PArt 5 23 NORPAC Agreement 36 tHe coLLectiVe bargaining struggLe WiDens 2003 Oregon Legislature Negotiations on Collective (1992 – 1995) Bargaining Rights and Deadlock 37 Building Pressure for Negotiation: The NORPAC Co-organized Programs for Indigenous Farmworkers: and Steinfeld Boycotts 23 Workplace Sexual Harassment and Assault; Pesticide Use 37 The Birth of the PCUN Women’s Project 23 PCUN Construction Projects: A Union Hall and PArt 8 39 Farmworker Housing 25 tHe MoVeMent For coMPreHensiVe “Aumento Ya!”—PCUN’s Tenth Anniversary Campaign iMMigration reForM (2001 – Present) to Raise Strawberry Wages 25 Catalyzing Immigration Reform After 9/11: the 2003 The Death of PCUN Founder Cipriano Ferrel and the Immigrant Worker’s Freedom Ride 39 Continued Realization of His Vision 27 Sensenbrenner Bill, Real ID, and a Historic Response in the Streets of the United States 40 PArt 6 28 The Struggle to Maintain the Right to Oregon Driver’s broaDening tHe MoVeMent TO Meet tHe Licenses for Immigrants 41 resurgence oF Labor anD iMMigration issues (1996 – 2001) Stopping E-Verify and Immigrant Worker Rights 42 The Struggle to Defeat National Anti-Immigrant and AgJOBS and the DREAM Act 42 Anti-Farmworker Legislation (1996–2000) 28 The Defeat of Anti-Immigrant Legislation in Oregon PArt 9 43 (1996–1997) 30 buiLDing tHe MoVeMent’s caPacitY: raDio MoViMiento anD tHe “caPaces” coLLaboratiVe Raising Awareness: The Development of PCUN’s (2003 – Present) Educational Classes and the Creation of Voz Hispana 30 Expanding Farmworker Housing 43 Clergy and Others Join PCUN in Pressuring Growers to Sign Contracts 30 Radio Movimiento 43 PCUN’s Historic Victory: Oregon’s First Farmworker CAPACES Project and CAPACES Leadership Collective Bargaining Agreement 31 Institute: Building for the Future 46 Gardenburger Cuts Ties with NORPAC and Labor PCUNcitos Club 50 Standards Are Introduced for the Country’s Largest Organic Processor of Frozen Fruits and Vegetables 32 conclusIons 51 National Campus Tours and Collaboration with the SOURCES CIted 52 Campaign for Labor Rights 33 APPendIX 1 54 Canadian Labour Congress Endorsement of Power Relations in Farm Labor 54 NORPAC Boycott 33 Government Agencies 55 Mujeres Luchadoras Progresistas: PCUN Women Launch a Successful Economic and Leadership Project 34 Legal and Community Service Organizations 55 Pressing for Improved Pesticide Reporting 35 PArt 7 36 tHe struggLe For coLLectiVe bargaining rigHts reacHes a cLiMax (2001 – 2004) anD DeaDLock 2001 Walk for Farmworker Justice 36 PictSweet Mushroom Organizing Campaign 36 4 The Story of PCUN and the Farmworker Movement in Oregon acknowledgements Histories provide recognition and legitimation of past events, student in anthropology, provided invaluable research assis- experiences, and interpretations for those living in the present. tance in transcribing interviews, participating in conferences The history that follows was born out of a need to document an on this topic, and coordinating student activities during all important part of Mexicano/a, Chicano/a, Latino/a, and labor phases of this project. Her ongoing commitment to this project history in the state of Oregon. Latino students at the University is admirable. Dr. Tami Hill, also a former graduate student in of Oregon spoke with me about the lack of educational mate- anthropology, provided crucial editorial and organizational rials that reflected some of the experiences of their families assistance in the final phases of preparing this history for pub- as migrants to the state. Others wanted recognition for those lication in its original version. In 2011, Anna Cruz and Ivan who have labored and continue to labor as farmworkers. Staff Sandoval-Cervantes, both graduate students in the Department and members from Pineros y Campesinos Unidos (Northwest of Anthropology, provided important assistance in the tran- Treeplanters and Farmworkers United, or PCUN) expressed a scription of additional interviews. need to document their own history. As activists who are con- My colleagues in the Department of Anthropology, in partic- tinually caught up in the dynamics of their work, they had little ular former chairs Bill Ayres, Aletta Biersack, Carol Silverman time to devote to such a project. Hence the idea for an initial and Frances White, provided support for this project in 2000, collaboration between an anthropologist, student researchers 2001, 2010, and 2011—not only granting me the time to carry from the University of Oregon, PCUN, the Wayne Morse Chair it out, but also by endorsing several new courses that came for Law and Politics, and later with the Center for Latino/a out of the project, titled “Immigration and the Farmworker and Latin American Studies (CLLAS) and Special Collections Experience,” “Latino Roots I,” and “Latino Roots II.” I thank and University Archives, UO Libraries. It is my hope that this them for recognizing the value of student participation in history of the farmworker movement in Oregon in general and research and for having a broad-based vision of anthropology. the story of PCUN in particular will provide a starting point for other collaborative efforts to uncover the rich history of I would also like to thank Margaret Hallock, whose enthusi- farmworkers and Latino history in our state, and will serve as a asm and support for this project have meant a great deal to me. resource to a wide range of people interested in the topic. In addition, I thank the Labor Education and Research Center at the University of Oregon for their support of the original version Collaborations involve participatory processes that take more of this publication. Finally, I gratefully acknowledge the grant time than solo creations. Here, PCUN staff and University of we received from the Wayne Morse Chair of Law and Politics Oregon students worked together to begin to organize the PCUN that funded the original research project. archives in 1999, to copy relevant material for the history, and to identify key actors—both past and present—who could help The Oregon Council for the Humanities has generously us to build a picture of farmworker organizing in Oregon and the granted permission for reprinting the map showing the border role of PCUN in that process. We initially identified a group of that separated the Oregon territory from the country of Mexico fourteen people who were interviewed in 1999 and then added in 1845. The map is reprinted from page twelve of Nosotros: five more interviews in 2010 for this current updated version of The Hispanic People of Oregon, edited by Erasmo Gamboa PCUN history. The interviews often lasted for two to three hours and Carolyn M. Braun, Portland: The Oregon Council for the at a time. The tapes were transcribed (often in Spanish) and the Humanities. transcripts returned to those who were interviewed, and these The new version of this history, published in 2012, would texts became part of the data base for building the history. In not have been possible without the support of the staff of the addition, audiotapes, videotapes, and photographs from PCUN Center for Latino/a and Latin American Studies (CLLAS) and archives were reviewed.