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.

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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.


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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. See below a brief timeline of PCUN’s activities.

To see our photo archive, click here.


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PCUN History: Timeline

May 1977 The Willamette Valley Immigration Project (WVIP), precursor to PCUN, is founded in response to an increase in INS raids in Oregon. It provides legal advice and representation to undocumented workers.

1981-1982 WVIP conducts interviews with reforestation workers to document their living and working conditions. WVIP also responds to massive INS raids and deportations of treeplanters between 1982-1984 by obtaining the release of some workers, and through protesting at the Portland INS office.

1982-1985 WVIP staff campaigns against the revival of the Bracero, or guest worker, program, which was part of proposed immigration legislation during the Reagan administration. WVIP advocated for a general amnesty for all workers.

April 1985 PCUN is founded as Oregon’s union for farmworkers and treeplanters. WVIP continues its service and immigration work through PCUN’s Service Center for Farmworkers.

1986 The Immigration Reform and Control Act is signed into law, allowing all those who had been living undocumented in the United States since Jan. 1, 1982 or who had worked in agriculture for ninety days between May 1, 1985 and May 1, 1986, to apply for residency.

1987-1988 PCUN and Service Center staff focus their work on the cases of immigrants seeking amnesty under the 1986 legislation.

1988 PCUN founds the Project to Stop Pesticide Poisoning with the goal of identifying pesticides used on various farms, documenting pesticide exposures, and informing farmworkers of the dangers of pesticides and the resources available to them through PCUN.

1988 PCUN shifts its focus to improving wages and working conditions for farmworkers, and joins other organizations to promote legislation that would give farmworkers collective bargaining rights.

1990 The “Red Card Campaign” is kicked off during the summer harvest season. PCUN organizers ask workers to document their hours and earnings, then compare this with their pay stubs. PCUN files wage claims with the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries for 40 workers.

1991 The first farmworker strike in Oregon since 1971, and the first- ever union-organized strike, is held by cucumber pickers at Kraemer Farms to demand a raise in pay.

September 1992 PCUN declares a boycott of NORPAC Foods, Inc. The grower-owned food-processing cooperative was targeted due to its business with Kraemer Farms, which is a NORPAC member.

1995 PCUN holds its tenth anniversary organizing campaign to raise wages in the strawberry harvest. Through a series of strikes and organizing actions, the wage paid per pound increases 2 to 3 cents on most area farms, after nearly ten years of stagnant wages.

1998 Oregon’s first farmworker collective bargaining agreement is signed between PCUN and Nature’s Fountain Farm. The contract includes protections unheard of on most farms, such as seniority, grievance procedures, overtime, paid breaks, and union recognition.

1999-2000 PCUN continues organizing around the NORPAC boycott through a nationwide tour of college campuses, and also gains the support of the Canadian Labour Congress for the boycott.

February 2002 After nearly ten years of boycotting, NORPAC Foods Inc. and PCUN sit down to negotiate establishing a framework for collective bargaining on NORPAC member farms. The boycott is suspended. Negotiations currently continue.

Summer 2002 PCUN joins with a nationwide coalition for the campaign “One Million Voices for Legalization,” to promote a new legalization program for undocumented immigrants. A million postcards in support of legalization are signed and delivered to President Bush and Congress on Oct. 9, 2002.

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