The AFL-CIO has endorsed a boycott of all Darigold products, originally initiated by Seattle area union employees who have been locked out of work from West Farm Food production plants and laboratories for over three months.

A total of 194 skilled union employees from the Teamsters Local 66 have been locked out from production plants in Issaquah and Seattle, along with a few laboratory employees from the corporate headquarters in downtown Seattle. Over 30 employees from these plants have been fired by Darigold, who operates nine other plants through Washington, Oregon, and California, according to Darigold estimates.

"We respect the AFL-CIOs right to take the position they have. However, we disagree that it is warranted. We believe that boycotting Darigold is counterproductive to helping save jobs," Darigold spokesperson Rae Klein said in response to the endorsement. Seventy-seven locked out employees from the Issaquah plant and dozens more from the Rainier plant in Seattle are still actively picketing their lock out by West Farm Foods, who sells its products under the moniker of Darigold. The lock out began when union employees rejected an initial contract proposal by West Farm Foods, when the company wanted the right to out source more work. West Farm Foods have yet to reach an agreement with union whose number one priority is job security according to the Teamsters Local 66 spokesperson.

Confrontations and complaints have come to the forefront of the lock out concerning the productivity of the workers who have replaced union employees. "The scab workers have ruined silos (210,000 lbs.) of milk. Ruined production runs of milk, ice cream and cottage cheese," says Teamsters Local 66. In response to these allegations, Darigold defends its position. "The temporary replacement workers have all been properly trained for their positions, they are fully skilled to perform the required work," Klein said.

Activist Michael Moore's visit to Seattle at the Paramount Theatre on October 26, 2003 fetched a crowd of 2,500 and peaked with an on-stage phone call. During his performance, Moore called West Farm Foods lawyer, Mark Hutcheson, who is negotiating contract talks with union employees working for Darigold. Moore proceeded to leave a message on Hutcheson's answering machine asking to end the lock out, "or all of us will stop drinking your sour milk."

The controversy over outsourcing skilled work from one location to another, helping to lower costs and raise profits, has steadily grown since the beginning of this century. Both the Boeing Corporation and Microsoft have done extensive outsourcing recently of skilled labor, shipping jobs to India, Russia, and China.

Seattle Post Intelligencer Business and Economics columnist Bill Virgin has written several articles and done investigation into the outsourcing of skilled labor. "in general, companies outsource because they believe someone can perform some function better and/or cheaper than it can, and outsourcing that job will allow it to spend more time on what they believe are their core operations. That's the theory anyway," Virgin said. Darigold maintains that outsourcing must happen for the company to stay in business. "Outsourcing is a business necessity for many companies, including ours. In order for the company to remain profitable, we must focus our core competencies processing and marketing high quality milk products. In some cases it makes sense for the company to use third parties to perform certain functions at a lower cost that we can do these functions ourselves," Klein said.

WashTech, a local organization which tracks and documents West Coast companies outsourcing technical jobs offers a website with up to date information for technical employees who have lost their jobs due to outsourcing, and provides resources for those companies looking to alter the current trend.

"Companies do not have to offshore jobs because their profits decline. For example, Microsoft has $48 billion in the bank. For the company to be profitable, they do not have to outsource," WashTech President Marcus Courtney said. A company laying-off workers in hopes of building greater profits may have more options than considered. Courtney believes to keep skilled positions in the United States and employees earning living wages, a shake-up must occur in management.

"Working with employees to improve efficiency and cost savings. Management is just firing workers in the hopes that exporting jobs overseas will save them money," Courtney said.

Local Teamster Unions in Los Angeles, Portland, Or. and Chehalis, Wa. recently protested through a sympathy strike to show their commitment to the locked out workers in Washington. All have returned to working at their plants and were welcomed back by their employer, West Farm Foods.

Other Teamster Locals involved in the lock out are 63, 78, 166, 231, 252, 305, 631 and 760.