Call goes out for boycott of Driscoll [View all]

[Starry Messenger]

Check your strawbs!

http://peoplesworld.org/call-goes-out-for-boycott-of-driscoll/

Yet another boycott of Driscoll's products is being called for, by Mexican farm workers this time, echoing a similar call from Washington state workers, as all decry pay and conditions in the fields of Driscoll's suppliers.

A work stoppage began on March 17 in the San Quintín Valley, near Ensenada in the Mexican state of Baja California, as workers, promptly represented by Rúben Núñez from the Oaxaca sección 22 of the Coordinadora Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación, called for a minimum daily wage of 300 pesos (at about $.067 USD/peso that comes to almost $20/day).

Berrymex, one of the largest growers in the area, employing as many as 31,000 workers, is one of the many producers that supplies Driscoll's with berries. In response to the strike, Berrymex representatives agreed to increase pay for workers by 15 percent, though none have said how much workers would actually be paid under the new scale, instead speaking in terms of percentages.

Berrymex, though, is not the only Driscoll's supplier whose workers are calling for a boycott. Sakura Farms workers in Burlington, Washington, are also calling for a boycott of Driscoll's products. Ironically, many of the Washington workers are also from Oaxaca, in southern Mexico, and many have family members also participating in the strikes in San Quintín. An Oregon-based NGO, the Fair World Project, has even gone so far as to collect some 10,000 signatures from concerned consumers to present to Driscoll's, as well as other distributors of the Sakura Farms products.

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