Driscoll’s Food Service is a leading distributor of fresh berries. The New Jersey-based company sources a lot of those berries from Sakuma Brothers, a Washington State berry farm that has a long history of underpaying and abusing farm workers.
Those workers have organized under the banner of Familias Unidas por la Justicia (United Families for Justice), in an attempt to obtain a legally binding contract that ensures a fair wage and decent working conditions.
Sounds reasonable, no? You'd think. But Sakuma Brothers won’t negotiate. So in an attempt to earn basic workers’ rights, the workers have called for a boycott of Sakuma Brothers berries. In other words, the situation is so desperate, the workers are asking buyers not to buy the very product that provides their livelihoods.
How can consumers help win basic rights for the abused workers at Sakuma Brothers? By asking Driscoll, one of Sakuma Brothers' largest customers, to boycott Sakuma Brothers until the company negotiates with the workers for fair wages and decent working conditions.