Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste (Northwest Treeplanters and Farmworkers United), is Oregon’s union of farmworkers, nursery, and reforestation workers, and Oregon’s largest Latino organization. PCUN’s fundamental goal is to empower farmworkers to understand and take action against systematic exploitation and all of its effects. To achieve this end, PCUN is involved in community and workplace organizing on many different levels. Founded in 1985 by 80 farmworkers, PCUN has since grown to include more than 5,000 registered members, 98% of which are Mexican and Central American immigrants, and to encompass a wide variety of organizing projects.
Background information:
PCUN’s office is located in Woodburn, a town of just over 20,000 located in the mid-Willamette Valley, the center of Oregon’s agricultural industry. Woodburn, which evolved during the 1960’s into a service and cultural center for the Valley’s Mexican community, currently has a majority Latino population of just over 50%.
Oregon’s farmworkers:
The fruit and vegetable growers of the Willamette Valley have depended heavily on Mexican labor since the 1940’s. Reforestation and plant nurseries emerged in the 1970’s as major winter occupations, enabling thousands of area farmworkers to remain in Oregon year-round.
Employees in these areas generally work long hours for low wages, with no overtime pay, paid breaks, seniority, job security, or other benefits. Seasonal workers are often housed in squalid labor camps owned and operated by growers or labor contractors. They are exposed to a myriad of chemicals and pesticides sprayed on crops and often lack the proper protective gear and training to apply pesticides. They also lack the right to collective bargaining, which is guaranteed to all other industries under the National Labor Relations Act.
Organizing efforts:
PCUN’s organizing and outreach efforts include workers from the various areas of agriculture, including year-round employees, irrigators, seasonal workers, nursery and reforestation workers, and cannery workers. PCUN’s Collective Bargaining Committee uses various direct organizing tactics, such as visiting fields, distributing leaflets, and holding house meetings and marches, yet PCUN also organizes through its Service Center for Farmworkers, which provides registered members with support services such as translations, recommendations to lawyers for work-related incidents, and immigration services, as well as a death benefit.
Collective bargaining:
Collective bargaining is, in our view, the most effective and lasting way to improve farmworker conditions because it redresses the power imbalance between growers and workers, and establishes respect, fairness and dignity as the bases for the employment relationship. Collective bargaining agreements are negotiated by a committee of workers elected by their peers at the farm, assisted by PCUN staff, and ratified by a vote of the workers.
Key components of these agreements include:
1. a simple and expeditious procedure to submit and resolve grievances;
2. seniority rights in lay-off, recall and promotion;
3. prohibition against retaliation and discipline or discharge without just cause;
4. guaranteed paid breaks and overtime pay;
5. workers’ right to refuse to work in conditions they regard as unsafe or hazardous;
6. paid and unpaid holidays and leaves of absence, including bereavement;
7. workers’ right to information about chemical used in the workplace, and
8. union recognition.
None of these protections or procedures is presently provided by law.
Collaborative efforts:
PCUN also works closely with a wide variety of other local organizations, including the Farmworker Housing Development Corporation, which runs the farmworker housing units in Woodburn, Voz Hispana, which organizes Latino voters and educates community members of the legacy of Cesar Chavez, CAUSA, which advocates for immigrant rights, and Mujeres Luchadoras Progresistas, which promotes economic and leadership development for farmworker women.
On a national level, PCUN collaborates with other organizations to promote legalization for undocumented workers and to ensure immigrants’ rights, and also advocates with the Oregon Legislature to protect farmworkers’ rights through legal means as well. PCUN’s Pesticide project has also involved national and statewide collaboration around issues such as controlling pesticide use and protecting the health of workers.
PCUN has led or been involved in numerous organizing efforts and campaigns since its founding.
