Peace and Social Concerns Committee, June 27 2016

Present: George M, Paddy L, David G, Carlos T, Frank G (clerking), Eileen C, Roger C, Dan G, Jane J. Beth is in the hospital, and Diane is recuperating after her surgery.

The meeting began with a time of silence.

The Driscoll berry boycott was explained and a minute which has been composed by a group of interested of Friends, along with an explanation, was distributed (see below.) We discussed how a minute for the Meeting could be arranged and presented. If a minute were adopted by the Meeting, the clerk could send it to media along with an explanatory text. We approved a minute, adapted from the original draft, as follows:

“As Quakers, our faith encourages us to act with justice, equality, and integrity toward others. Driscoll Strawberry Associates distributes berries picked on farms that engage in systematic wage theft, unattainable production standards, and harassment. As berry farm workers who pick Driscoll's berries organize to try to improve their working conditions, we support their efforts by supporting the national boycott of Driscoll berries.”

We recommend that our Clerk send this minute, with an explanation, to the media. Other suggestions for support for the boycott may be forthcoming, probably from the group of concerned Friends who created the original document. We expect that the group will select the person to present this minute for approval in the July meeting for business.

Jane will take on the coordination of letter writing in July, on the topic of the boycott.

Diane would like to have people talk with her about the concert series and some decisions to be made about it. Jane and Roger will arrange to talk with her.

Dan offered to clerk our meeting on July 25 but is willing to yield if another person wishes to clerk.

We closed with silence.

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Following is the document prepared by a group of concerned MtToby Friends. The last paragraph formed the original basis of the minute approved by the committee.

Driscoll is the largest berry distributor in the world. In Washington State, berry pickers at the Sakuma Brothers Farms north of Seattle, where Driscoll buys berries, have been organizing for 3 years.  Since 2013, some workers have been staging a series of picket lines and lawsuits, etc to protest labor violations.  In 2015 they won paid rest breaks statewide.  That same year, there were massive protests at Driscoll farms in Mexico.  Since then, Driscoll’s farmworkers have been organizing on both sides of the border.

This past May there was an international day of action to boycott Driscoll’s.  The workers have demanded that Driscoll’s sign a union contract and give workers good conditions for housing and work, better salaries, medical plans, pensions, and that they remove children under the age of 17 from the fields.

Workers also claim that wages have been stolen, they have been mistreated and intimidated and have been required to work in bad weather conditions.  In 2015, 30,000 farmworkers in Mexico went on strike to demand better pay and conditions.

Driscoll workers have faced systemic wage theft, poverty wages, hostile working conditions, unattainable production standards, verbal harassment by supervisors and racist treatment.

As Quakers our faith encourages us to act with justice, equality, and integrity towards others. The behavior of Driscoll’s shows a deep disregard for other humans who are trying to live a decent life.  Due to the oppressive policies that workers there have experienced in recent years, especially since Driscoll workers have begun organizing to form a union, Mt. Toby Friends Meeting supports the national boycott of Driscoll berries.