SALEM (Oregon) STATESMAN-JOURNAL

August 25, 2008

PCUN president fights for fairness

He is motivated by discrimination he saw against parents

By Thelma Guerrero-Huston
Statesman Journal

By the time Ramon Ramirez took over the helm at PCUN in 1995, he already had achieved an unprecedented success: In 1991, he led the first-ever union-organized strike in Oregon agriculture.

He followed that up in 1998 when he signed three collective-bargaining contracts with separate Oregon growers, a first in the state's agricultural history.

Ramirez's drive for fair wages and decent working conditions for some of the state's most marginalized workers is fueled by the discrimination that he witnessed against his U.S.-born mother and immigrant father and their workplace exploitation in his home state of California.

Ramirez recently met with the Statesman Journal at his office in Woodburn to talk about PCUN — the Spanish acronym for Northwest Treeplanters and Farmworkers United — and other topics.

Question: When was PCUN founded?

Answer: In 1985.

Q: Were you its founder?

A: I was a co-founder. I was vice president, but I took over the presidency after Cipriano Ferrel, the other co-founder, died in 1995. In 1996, I was elected president by union members and have been re-elected ever since.

Q: How many members does PCUN have?

A: We currently have 5,500 members who work in reforestation, nurseries and farms in Marion and Polk counties.

Q: What exactly does PCUN do?

A: We represent the interests of farm workers in their workplace. We're also involved in public policy issues that impact farm workers, and we work on collective-bargaining agreements with different growers in Oregon.

Q: Some people claim that PCUN's members are illegal immigrants. Is that true?

A: We think some are. To say "none are" would be absurd. But we don't really know who or how many are undocumented because we don't ask.

Q: Why not?

A: To be a member of our union, you have to be a worker at a farm. We assume the employer checks their status. We're a union, not an employer.

Q: So might some members also be legal residents or U.S. citizens?

A: Most of our members are U.S. citizens. They became citizens under the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act signed by (then President Ronald) Reagan. But there are some families that we helped to become legal permanent residents.

Q: From what nation or nations did your members come from?

A: The majority came from Mexico. But some are from Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Honduras.

Q: It's been said that you support illegal immigration. Do you?

A: I support AgJob programs that would legalize workers who come to this country to provide a valuable service. I also support comprehensive immigration reform that would provide a path to citizenship. I think it's also important to note that many of the workers that are here came here because some employer recruited them.

Q: Do you think illegal immigration needs to be curbed?

A: Yes. But it's not enough to say that Mexico has to work on that issue.

Q:: Why not?

A: Because we need to look at the causes that force people to leave their nations. Free trade agreements are probably the biggest cause of migration from Mexico and Central American nations into the United States.

Q: How do you know that?

A: We've asked people who have come here, and we've been to those countries. Farmers tell us they can't sell their crops. They say they can't compete with the United States.

Q: Why?

A: Mexico, for example, won't buy crops from its own farmers because it can buy them cheaper from the United States through free trade policies like NAFTA. U.S. growers can sell their crops cheaper because they're federally subsidized.

Q: So you're saying that Mexican farmers can't make a living as a result?

A: Yes. So they come to the United States to work so they can feed their families. If we want to curb illegal immigration, we need to look at U.S. policies that exclude small growers from other nations, who end up coming here because they're struggling to make a living in their own country.

Q: Let's talk about driver's licenses. PCUN members lobbied heavily against the state's stiffer driver's license rules. Why?

A: We believed then and now that it's a public safety issue. Personally, I think the Legislature and the governor made bad decisions.

Q: Have the new rules affected any of your members?

A: Maybe a few, but we've mostly heard from people who aren't our members who say they can't renew their driver's license. We've also heard from employers who say their workers can't get to work because they no longer have a driver's license.

Q: Speaking of work, how many active contracts does PCUN currently have?

A: Four.

Q: When was the last time the union secured a contract?

A: Last year.

Q: With whom?

A: Igor Acres in Scio, Oregon.

Q: Are the contracts with various types of farms?

A: Most are with small organic growers.

Q: None with large farms?

A: No. We haven't been able to get a contract with any because of the whole issue of unionization.

Q: What does that mean?

A: Large farm growers in the Willamette Valley look at unionization as a negative, as though we're trying to take over their farm. We're not trying to do that. We just want to develop a partnership with them.

Q: We hear all the time that unauthorized workers drive down wages. Do you agree?

A: The problem is not that those workers are driving down wages, the problem is that some employers take advantage of these people.

Q: How do you know that?

A: We hear it from workers all the time. Some tell us the grower isn't even paying them minimum wage. Others tell us their employer doesn't pay them at all.

Q: But aren't those employers required to pay workers the negotiated wage?

A: Not necessarily. While we represent workers employed at some farms, we might not represent a worker with their employer because we don't have a contract with that grower.

Q: Let's talk about the nation's borders. Are you in favor of securing our borders?

A: Of course, I am. But what I don't like are double standards.

Q: What do you mean?

A: I've gone to the U.S.-Canada border, and I don't see us heavily concerned about that border like we are about the southern border.

Q: So you don't agree with those who say that security is needed at the U.S.-Mexico border to help fight terrorism?

A: No. If indeed it's terrorism we're concerned about, then why aren't we securing both our borders? Why focus only on our southern border? Bottom line is that it's about keeping out certain people because of the color of their skin.