Apple Industry Faces Key Labor Vote
Workers at two of Washington’s largest apple packing plants will vote on union representation early next year.
And the rest of the industry will watch, fearing or hoping that the results will set a precedent for everyone else in the state’s $1 billion apple industry.
About 300 employees at Washington Fruit and Produce in Yakima will vote on Jan. 8 whether they want the International Brotherhood of Teamsters to represent them in negotiating a contract with their employer.
Another 550 to 600 workers at Stemilt Growers Inc. in Wenatchee may vote on the Teamsters Union later in January, after a National Labor Relations Board hearing on Dec. 9 to determine who can be in Stemilt’s bargaining unit.
No other unions have shown interest in representing the apple packers, said Ray Willms, acting assistant to the regional director at the NLRB.
The Teamsters Union two years ago began to organize fruit packers in the orchard-filled Yakima and Wenatchee Valleys. The union has since provided workers with places to meet, promises of what union representation could do and support in filing unfair labor practice complaints against employers.
The targets, Stemilt and Washington Fruit, are major players among Washington’s apple packers. What happens in these two elections may have repercussions throughout the industry.
“There’s a real sense in a lot of the warehouses that people are watching to see where this is going,” said Andrew Barnes, a Teamster organizer in Yakima. “Winning this vote, I think, is opening the door to organizing the apple industry in Washington - at least in the warehouses.”
Until recently, Teamster representatives said they wanted to avoid elections because companies could use the process to slow negotiations with workers.
“There’s a difference between winning an election and winning a contract,” Barnes said. “Our concern about going to an election is that the company will stall on the contract.”
Advocates for the industry say that the union had to take action with an election now or fail.
“They have to demonstrate that they have some legitimate support at some point or they’re going to be disregarded by the work force and the rest of organized labor that is funding this organizing drive,” said Mike Gempler, executive director of the Washington Growers League in Yakima.
‘I think at some point you have to produce and this is a last-ditch attempt to give some kind of legitimacy to their campaign,” Gempler said.
The two targets of the union campaign say they’ve been waiting for the election.
“We’d been advocating a secret ballot election for our employees so they can decide,” said Rick Plath, president of Washington Fruit and Produce.
Both companies have said they would support the results of an official vote.
“If the majority of the people vote for the union, I guess the inevitable will happen: we’ll have one,” said Kyle Mathison, a member of the family that owns Stemilt. “But we like to feel the employees are well treated and don’t need to have a union.”
Meanwhile, others in the apple industry are simply waiting for the other shoe to fall.
“This is all kind of new,” said Kirk Mayer, manager of the Washington Growers’ Clearinghouse.
“There has been continual debate as to whether this has been good or bad for the industry and whether the Teamsters represented a significant number of workers or not,” said Mayer. “It will be nice to move to the next step.”
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