BY SCOTT BREEN
YAKIMA, Washington - Chanting "Trabajo Sí!, Redadas, No!" (Work, Yes! Raids, No!) and "What do we want? Justice! When do we want it? Now!" about 300 people marched three miles through this town October 18 protesting Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) raids in Washington state.

The march and subsequent rally in downtown Yakima's Miller Park were organized by the Washington Alliance for Immigrant and Refugee Justice (WAIRJ), Washington Jobs With Justice, and the Washington Association of Churches, as part of a National Week of Action against Immigration Raids.

The protesters, most of them Latino and Chicano youth, came from throughout the state, especially from the communities up and down the Yakima Valley. The valley is home to a large number of immigrant workers from Mexico. They have come to this rich agricultural area to pick the apples, pears, and other fruits; tend the orchards, vineyards, and the vegetable fields; and work in the fruit warehouses that are the economic backbone here.

The Yakima Valley has also become the center of union organizing drives by farm workers in the fields and by workers in the fruit packing warehouses.

In 1996, the United Farm Workers (UFW) signed its first contract in the state, with Chateau St. Michelle vineyards. Union representation elections at Washington Fruit in Yakima and at Stemilt Warehouse in Wenatchee, efforts organized by the Teamsters union, were narrowly defeated earlier this year.

Under the impact of these union drives, which are continuing, the employers have turned to the INS to try to intimidate the predominantly Latino workforce. The Yakima area has been the target of frequent INS raids. For example, on June 26, the immigration cops raided Borton and Sons, an apple-packing warehouse near Yakima. They detained 58 workers, deporting 49 of them the next day, including a 14-year-old boy.

The largest groups in the march were Teamster warehouse workers and farm workers organized by the UFW.

At the rally, Ana Guzmán, who was fired for union activism during the Teamsters organizing drive at Washington Fruit, explained that a hearing on the union's charges of unfair labor practices against Washington Fruit in the January representation election would begin on November 3 in Yakima. Her firing is part of the charges the union has lodged with the National Labor Relations Board.

The Teamsters are organizing a public rally for Sunday, November 1, at 5:00 p.m. in Yakima to "stand by the workers at Washington Fruit warehouse on the eve of the trial against the company for breaking the law in the January elections," according to their leaflet distributed at the march. The rally is called "The Apple Industry: Ripe for Justice, Now on Trial."

Many students joined the protest, including some from Central Washington University in Ellensburg, and Whitman College in Walla Walla. A busload of activists came from Seattle and another bus came from Brewster, in the Okanogan region of Washington.

Two members of United Steelworkers of America (USWA) Local 7945, on strike against Kaiser Aluminum in Tacoma, made the three- hour drive to join the protest. José Correa, a 22-year veteran at Kaiser, his wife Ruby Correa, and José Feliciano, a young Puerto Rican who had worked at Kaiser for a year, marched the whole route, distributing information about their strike to participants. At the rally they staffed a table with signs in Spanish saying "We support immigrant rights, USWA on strike against Kaiser." Marchers came by to talk with the strikers and exchange experiences. Many signed a petition in Spanish against Kaiser's union-busting attack. Feliciano was also interviewed by Radio KDNA, a prominent Spanish radio station in Yakima Valley, and by TV KNDO, Yakima's CBS affiliate, which covered the march.

Scott Breen is a member of the International Association of Machinists and is the Socialist Workers candidate for State Senate, 37th District.  
 
 
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