Hold the (PictSweet) mushrooms

Salt shakers
April 2002

Hold the (PictSweet) mushrooms
Workers at PictSweet Mushrooms in Ventura, California have been trying for 14 years to win fair pay, benefits and, most of all, safe working conditions, according to the United Farm Workers. The California mushroom pickers, predominately Mexican immigrants and Mexican Americans, have worked without a labor agreement since the mid-1980s.

The UFW reports that mushroom workers labor in dark and damp rooms on slippery floors with only the lights on their helmets to guide them. Workers have complained that over time the lack of proper lighting has caused their vision to deteriorate. Workers who have attempted to organize at PictSweet have been terminated.

In January, a state administrative judge ruled PictSweet illegally fired mushroom picker Fidel Andrade in retaliation for his support of the United Farm Workers and for engaging in other activities protected by California's farm labor law. The judge ordered Andrade to be offered his job back and that he be reimbursed for all lost wages and other losses "suffered as a result of his unlawful discharge."

Because of these and other greivances with PictSweet, the UFW has called a national boycott of PictSweet mushrooms. Major customers of PictSweet have honored the boycott, including Vons, Safeway and Ralphs supermarkets.

Now the UFW wants to add one of PictSweet's largest customers to that list. The union has asked Pizza Hut to join the boycott and hopes consumer pressure will help Pizza Hut come to a decision. The UFW is asking consumers to tell Pizza Hut to stop sprinkling PictSweet mushrooms on their products until the company agrees to negotiate with union laborers.

Many workers have already been laid off at PictSweet's Salem, Oregon facility after a unionizing campaign there. Those workers are calling for a boycott of PictSweet's parent company, United Food of Bells, Tennessee. PictSweet representatives did not respond to a request for some comment on the company's labor practices.

On February 22nd, a lawsuit was filed in federal district court in Portland by 41 former PictSweet workers alleging that United Foods failed to provide proper written disclosure of rate of pay, discriminated against workers who exercised their rights to know the new rate of pay, failed to provide proper pay stubs, failed to post required information, and that the company interfered with the workers' right to engage in concerted activities free from interference or coercion.

Though United Foods had announced the "closure" of the Salem plant, farmworkers there say the company continues to operate it on a smaller scale, processing mushrooms from their Oxnard, California plant. United Foods has not placed its property on the market, blocking efforts to find another operator.

For more information:
UFW "Pizza hut" e-mail campaign
Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste

Back to page top