Farm workers at Flat Top Orchards in the Yakima Valley, have won a five week strike, ending Washington's longest ever harvest time labor action.

As the apple season began, Borton and Sons, owner of Flat Top Orchards announced a change in the wage structure. Traditionally paid for piecework--how many apples picked--the workers were now to be paid the minimum wage of $6.50 an hour.

Skilled workers can make twice that under the piecework system.

The 52 workers at Flat Top decided to strike, facing the many barriers that seasonal workers must contend with in such an action. For starters, five weeks is a long time when the harvest season is a major part of your annual income. As a largely Hispanic workforce, there are language and cultural barriers, the omnipresent document problem, and not least, the institutionalized racism that makes all of this possible.

Other growers followed the lead of Flat Top, instituting their own wage rollbacks. Workers at these other orchards joined the conversation with their own work stoppages. Twelve strikes were underway within two weeks of the action at Flat Top. Picketing replaced apple picking as the season's main activity.

The United Farm Workers took the lead in supporting the striking workers. Using its organizing resources and international connections, the UFW marshalled support from Yakima to Mexico, which, in this post-NAFTA world, is the final destination for one-third of Washington's apple crop.

The UFW organized marches in Eastern Washington, one of which was attended by 11,000 people. The union also prepared for a possible apple boycott. They threatened a Mexican advertising campaign, alerting consumers there to the situation in the orchards.

One by one the growers caved and workers won wage and other concessions. At the end, only the Flat Top workers remained on strike, the first and the last.

Flat Top's owner relented on September 19 and presented an acceptable agreement, including written disclosure of wage rates, a guarantee of piece-rate pay instead of the minimum wage, and a clause protecting against gender and age discrimination.

Significantly, the agreement at Flat Top protected striking workers from being fired and replaced, as has been common in the industry. The workers, by sticking together, protected themselves individually and collectively. Lupe Gamboa, the UFW's regional director said the workers' unity and determination have "shown us the way."

"It took enormous courage for these workers to stand together for so long. I think their perseverance and dedication has surprised and alarmed the grower community, and ultimately will be seen as a turning point in the battle to organize our most exploited workforce, and collectively improve their working and living conditions." Gamboa stressed that the strike was effective in halting a pattern of wage rollbacks in the industry.

The UFW says there is still a lot to be done. The workers at each orchard had to bargain individually with the respective owner. Some workers won greater concessions than others. Truck drivers and irrigators did well; others haven't come out so well.

According to the UFW, the industry needs effective worker organizing and collective bargaining. This includes an amnesty for undocumented workers, who are in a difficult position when standing up for their rights. The growers are staunchly opposed to unions and all they stand for, and retaliation against organizing efforts is not uncommon.

A teamster organizer once described it as "an almost feudal system." The workers live on the owner's land for the duration of the harvest. They reside in accommodations provided or not provided by the owners, at an often high rental, given the remotely rustic nature of the habitations. The workers rely on the owner for a fair accounting of wages, and any argument or complaint may result in summary dismissal: banishment from the lordly manor.

The small scale orchardists of eastern Washington certainly don't view themselves as wealthy landlords. Chances are they're right. Like farmers everywhere, they live by the seasons and invariably owe everything they've got to the bank.

Multi-national agribusiness does not have the problems of the small growers, who they are increasingly replacing. Instead of already owing next season's harvest to the bank, they might be the bank, and the distribution network, and maybe the supermarket at the other end of the pipeline.

Agricorp. Intl. can afford to pay its freight, and its workers too. Small farmers are under pressures that can't be blamed on workers organizing for their human rights, including fair wages. If an orchard can supply apples to Mexico or Japan, yet it can't pay its workers a decent wage, then what's going on? Somebody is making a profit, or the apples wouldn't be dropping into groceries all over the planet. Some of that profit is being stolen from the pockets of agricultural workers. They are the easiest targets, with little power, little access to redress.

What happens in Yakima, or the Okanogan, isn't much different than in other plantation economies around the world--except that it is not around the world. It is right here.

The UFW can be reached in Seattle at 206-956-0494.