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13-Year Strike at Walnut Plant Nearing End

Tuesday, October 19, 2004

STOCKTON, Calif. - When Margaret Munoz walked off her job at the
world's largest walnut processing plant, she had one grandchild. Now
she has seven. 

Munoz was among more than 600 workers who launched a strike against
the Diamond of California plant 13 years ago, convinced the growers'
cooperative would quickly buckle to their demands in the autumn rush
to harvest and process half the nation's walnuts. 

Last week, the Stockton plant's permanent and seasonal workers voted
311-262 to join the Teamsters union, which could signal the beginning
of the end of the walkout if the disputed election stands. One of the
union's demands is that the striking workers get their jobs back. 

But the union and company have challenged 76 votes - enough to swing
the election - which could further drag out a conflict that once
reached the U.S. Supreme Court. 

"It's just been a long, long ongoing dispute, but it may be we're
getting to the point where it could be resolved in the next couple
weeks," said Michael Leong, assistant to the National Labor Relations
Board's Oakland regional director. 

The labor board is examining the election, and the issue will go to a
hearing before an administrative law judge if the tally can't be
resolved. If the union wins, the company will be required to bargain
in good faith for at least a year. 

The cooperative said in a statement it prefers to bargain directly
with individuals instead of through a union, but hopes to finally
resolve the dispute. A spokeswoman repeatedly declined further
comment. 

Plant officials had been telling workers a union vote could mean the
return of 600 employees to take away their jobs, said Jose Valencia,
who said he had no idea who all those shouting, sign-waving people
were when he crossed the picket line as a replacement worker 13 years
ago. 

"I don't think there's even 30 people that would be going back - it's
come down to that," said Smith. "People have moved on, they've found
better paying jobs." 

Munoz was among about a dozen strikers who were reinstated at the
plant in 1999, working only long enough to retire six months later. 

Delores Smith has never gone back, fulfilling a promise to her father
before the Teamster driver, business agent and local president died in
1993. 

"I promised him before he died that I wouldn't give this up, and I
kept my promise," Smith said. 

Teamsters International President James P. Hoffa called the strike one
of the union's "epic battles" during a rally at the plant in 2000:
"Someday they will look back here, at the land of John Steinbeck and
'The Grapes of Wrath,' and say ... 'The workers at Stockton's Diamond
plant, they are the ones who stood up,'" Hoffa told the workers. 

But the strike trailer and portable toilets were hauled away from the
plant's front entrance last year. Strike pay ran out after the first
two years. And the chain-link fence that barricaded the plant came
down long ago, leaving patched-over holes like old scars in the
concrete sidewalk. 

Workers at the plant took a 30 percent pay cut in 1985 during tough
times, and say they expected to be repaid as the cooperative's
finances improved. The union's leadership ordered the walkout when
Diamond offered a dime-an-hour raise and a bonus package in 1991. 

But the cooperative already had begun training replacements, and
automated machinery had made many of the laborers' jobs unnecessary
over the years. 

The cooperative prospered despite the strike, and now argues the
employees would have been better off taking the bonuses it offered.
Wages are competitive, with top workers making nearly $20 an hour, and
benefits add more than a third to base pay, Diamond said in its
statement. 

Meanwhile, a freshly painted sign on the Teamster's headquarters urges
Diamond to "can walnuts, not workers." Bumper stickers depict a
nutcracker crushing a plant employee. And a flyer urges consumers to
boycott Diamond walnuts this holiday season as the dispute drags on. 

"We've all gained weight, we all have gray hair," laughed Smith. 

"It seems like time really went fast," said Munoz. "It's hard to
believe it's been that long."