Early PCUN Efforts

The Use of Pesticides

In 1988 PCUN founded the Project to Stop Pesticide Poisoning with the goal of identifying pesticides used on various farms, documenting pesticide exposures, and informing farmworkers of the dangers of pesticides and the resources available to them through PCUN. PCUN also shifted its focus to improving wages and working conditions for farmworkers, and joined other organizations to promote legislation that would give farmworkers collective bargaining rights.

The Red Card Campaign

During the harvest season in the summer of 1990 PCUN’s Red Card Campaign was kicked off. Workers were asked to document their hours and earnings, and then compare this with their pay stubs. As a result, PCUN filed wage claims with the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries for more than 100 workers.

Strikes and Boycotts

In 1990, PCUN successfully sued the federal government to invalidate a state law which restricted workplace picketing during planting or harvesting of crops. The law, originally enacted in 1963, made strikes virtually impossible.

In 1991, cucumber pickers struck at the Kraemer Farms to demand a pay raise. In 1992, Kraemer Farms retaliated, and PCUN declared a boycott of NORPAC Foods, Inc., at the time the largest processor of fruits and vegetables west of the Mississippi River. PCUN targeted NORPAC Foods in order to pressure Kraemer Farms, a NORPAC co-owner.

Farmworker Housing Development Corporation

In order to address farmworker housing needs, in 1991 PCUN co-founded the Farmworker Housing Development Corporation (FHDC) to build and manage decent and affordable housing in towns. In 1994, the FHDC opened the Nuevo Amanecer housing project in Woodburn housing fifty families, the first farmworker housing built in Woodburn in more than twenty years. In 1997, FHDC opened its second project, a twelve-unit complex called Esperanza Court located in downtown Woodburn across from City Hall. As with Nuevo Amanecer, PCUN helped FHDC overcome fierce political opposition to the housing project. Most recently, the FHDC built a housing project in Salem, the forty-eight-unit Colonia Libertad.

Risberg Hall

On April 28, 1994, PCUN’s ninth anniversary, members and community allies gathered to dedicate the PCUN headquarters building as “Risberg Hall,” honoring Edward and Sonia Risberg, immigrant workers and union/community activists in the 1930s and 1940s, whose estate helped finance the building’s acquisition. Governor Barbara Roberts headlined the celebration, along with singer and activist Peter Seeger, who also performed a benefit concert for PCUN in Portland.

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