Farmworkers end strike against Washington Bulb Company

Seasonal workers for the Washington Bulb Company are back at work after a three-day strike that made headlines throughout the state.

The strike was sparked by an error the company made when calculating worker bonuses for daffodil bunches picked on Saturday, March 19.

While pay for the harvest crew averages $17.50 an hour, it can fluctuate on any given day, explained Brent Roozen of Washington Bulb on March 24, when he talked to reporters in front of company headquarters.

“Last Saturday, we bonused one crew too much and another too little. That mistake was brought to our attention Tuesday when we counted boxes. We rectified by giving everyone a bonus.”

Field crews challenged that solution. One woman, who asked not to be identified, said that when one crew got a $2 bonus and the other a $4 bonus, the company’s solution was to pay each crew a $3 bonus per box of 50 daffodils.

“That was not the only time that happened,” she said.

In response to the Saturday incident, angry workers compiled a list of other grievances and walked off the job Tuesday morning, March 22.

Videos in Spanish and English on the Facebook page of the local farmworker union Familias Unidas por la Justicia (FUJ) show workers arriving at the United Steelworkers hall in Mount Vernon at about 11:30 a.m. to plan next steps.

“Things came to a point where they reached out to the union to see if it was willing to support them,” said Edgar Franks, FUJ political director.

Familias Unidas por la Justicia was founded in 2013 in Skagit County by indigenous Mixteco and Triqui workers who picked berries for Sakuma Brothers. In 2017, Familias Unidas negotiated a collective bargaining agreement that guaranteed Sakuma workers a fair piece-work wage.

During the pandemic FUJ, along with the United Farm Workers union, filed a suit in Skagit County urging Washington officials to update state health and safety standards to protect agriculture workers. It has also supported striking farmworkers in Yakima.

According to FUJ staff, about 400 local farmworkers have signed union membership cards.

On Wednesday, March 23 at 8 a.m. workers met at the McLean Road fire station before walking to Washington Bulb Company headquarters to talk to management. Company staff told them they would talk to their workers, but not FUJ representatives. The workers moved to a Washington Bulb Company parking lot on Best Road near Christianson’s Nursery and set up a strike line.

Multiple FUJ Facebook videos in English, Spanish and Mixteco document that day’s campaign. At 11:13 a.m. FUJ shared Washington Bulb Company vice president Polly Welch’s direct phone number, asking people to call and let the company know they supported the workers and to urge management to talk to the elected committee.

Facebook posts drew additional supporters to the Best Road strike line, which wrapped up about 1:30 p.m.

After gathering again on Best Road at about 8 a.m. the next day, workers moved the strike line to company headquarters on Beaver Marsh Road. As workers held signs and talked to reporters, the committee presented its list of grievances.

Besides the bonus pay schedule, the workers’ ten issues included the accessibility and condition of portable bathrooms, protective equipment, a minimum eight-hour day and payment for prep work.

It can take an hour to sort and loop the rubber bands used to band flower bunches onto a hoop that workers wear on their pants. “It has to be done just right so workers can grab the bands quickly and not hurt themselves or spill the bands in the mud,” said La Conner resident Rosalinda Guillén, founder of Community to Community, a women-led grassroots organization dedicated to food sovereignty and immigrant rights.

“This is something they have been doing forever for free, on their own time.”

Also, a concern is company-provided protective gear to prevent blisters and swelling caused by the liquid that drips from daffodil stems when cut.

“Workers showed me their arms and wrists, some swollen all the way to elbow with mosquito-bite type blotches and blisters,” said Guillén. “Their arms and wrists are itching all the time and it can take until late May for the itching to go away.”

In general, Guillén said, there is no transparency around piece-rate wages and workers often don’t understand how management makes decisions on hourly wages, bonuses or piece work rates.

Management accepted the list at about noon on Thursday, although they were clearly shaken by the strike.

“We have a very long history of positive working relationships with our valued employees and this action is upsetting to both our company and employees,” said a Wednesday afternoon post on the Roozengaarde Facebook page.

“We greatly value and appreciate our employees and the contributions they make to both our company and the greater Skagit Valley community.”

“We have a very well-trained human resources department for grievances,” Brent Roozen elaborated on Thursday in the company parking lot.

“Everything is straightforward and we have an open door policy.”

According to Roozen, port-a-potties are stocked and cleaned daily, there is plenty of water on site and protective green dishwashing gloves are available for anyone who wants them. It is not possible to guarantee an eight-hour day, because sometimes there are no flowers left after six hours, but the company guarantees at least four hours of paid work. All hours are logged, but they do not include walking from parking lots to the fields, another worker complaint.

“We don’t need demands to make changes. We are open to listening to anything and make changes, but we need to talk directly to employees,” he said.

That afternoon, workers met again at the United Steelworkers hall to vote on joining FUJ. Karl deJong, president of the Northwest Washington Central Labor Council AFL-CIO and a Sedro Woolley city councilman, told listeners how union cannery jobs helped his family gain a better life after emigrating from post-war Netherlands.

Doors were closed as the voting began. Outside, family members and supporters, including local clergy and other elected officials, visited while a picnic supper was served.

Freddy Reyes was among them. During the 27 years his mother has worked for the Washington Bulb Company, “she has seen it all,” he said. He and his brothers also worked in the flower fields while they were in high school.

“People have been mistreated, fired, let go. A lot of people aren’t going to complain because they are undocumented or worry about retaliation. ‘Don’t quit, keep working, it will get better’ is a common philosophy of people my parents’ age.”

As a union employee of the Mount Vernon School District, he appreciates that when someone has a complaint, it goes to a union representative to follow up.

On the other hand, he hoped that FUJ was explaining that with unions come dues. “That can be hard when you’re in a position of making minimum wage and supporting a family,” he said. “Even at school, not every person can afford to belong.”

When the doors opened again, FUJ president Ramon Torres announced that about 93 out of the estimated 150 or so seasonal workers had “voted” by signing union cards, which District 40 State Representative Debra Lekanoff verified. Also, the company had agreed to talk with the worker’s committee and a union representative and workers would return to the fields Friday morning, March 25. “We look forward to finding solutions so that we may move forward together,” said a Friday morning Roozengaarde Facebook post.

The outcome of the Friday morning meeting between management and the worker’s committee was positive, said Franks.

“There was a lot of progress and the workers felt heartened. We went over the list, answered questions and explained where each of those points was coming from. It was a good meeting.”

A second, follow-up meeting was planned for Monday afternoon March 28.

Some workers will only be in the fields for a few more days. Washington Bulb’s 450 acres of daffodils are almost finished, and fewer workers are needed to cut the 350 acres of tulips preparing to bloom.

Reached on Monday morning, Brent Roozen said that while Washington Bulb has an outstanding record when it comes to state Department of Labor & Industries regulations, it is always looking for ways to improve the working environment of all employees.

“Many of our best processes are the result of direct feedback from employees,” he said. “No one knows the job better than the individual that is doing that job, which is why we welcome feedback at all times.”

“If we were what we are being made out to be, it would be bad business,” said Roozen, whose grandfather, William Roozen, founded the company in 1947. “It would decrease safety, productivity, employee morale and you would pay state-regulated fines that would bury your business and we wouldn’t be the last daffodil grower left not just in the Skagit Valley, but the United States.”

“My father saw that there were moments of beauty and dignity among the workers even within bad conditions,” said Guillén, whose father Jesus Guillén’s beautiful portraits of indigenous flower cutters are among the most iconic images of Skagit Valley agriculture.

“What my father painted is a vision of what it should be like,” she said. “I feel like my responsibility to my father is to work to make those paintings a reality the best that I can.”