Things Turn Sour At The Sugar Factory In Contra Costa County

Warehouse workers at the C&H Sugar factory in Crockett walked out this week, launching a strike against a three-year contract renewal they call “egregious.”

The 90 warehouse workers, represented by Oakland-based International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 6, say C&H proposed a raw deal: cutting five of 10 annual sick days, doing away with benefits for retired workers and revising rules so management could dodge paying overtime.

“The contract is so bad, you can’t afford to take it,” said Mario Rivas, a crane operator at C&H for 10 years. Rivas grew up in Crockett, and his grandfather and brother both worked for C&H.

Since starting the strike Monday, Rivas and dozens of other workers have shown up at 4:30 a.m. every morning to a windy intersection outside the factory, often staying until past 7 p.m. The corner has become a hot spot: locals drive by and honk in support, or stop to chat. Family members bring rounds of donuts, pizza and coffee to keep the group’s energy up.

“We are disappointed the union has chosen to walk out, but we respect their right to do so,” said Peter O’Malley, vice president of corporate relations at American Sugar Refining, C&H’s parent company.

“We remain committed to an open and constructive dialogue with the union and sincerely hope to welcome these employees back soon, said O’Malley, citing a 20% wage increase offered in the new contract.

“We were flexible on wage things,” said ILWU Local 6 union representative Cesar Garibay. “But our rights we want to keep. We’re willing to work around some of the stuff they’re proposing, but not eliminate it.”

Staffing shortages and the rising costs of living don’t help, said Rivas.

“They’re going to raise the bridge tolls again, gas prices are going up. This is pretty egregious,” he said of the contract.

It’s the first C&H strike since 2003, when warehouse workers walked out in solidarity with around 300 members of Sugar Workers Union Local No. 1, who were fighting the company over their three-year contract at the time.

Warehouse workers haven’t walked out for themselves since the late 1930s in a strike known as the Sugar Wars, which allegedly resulted in clashes between workers and police.

In a letter to workers from C&H General Manager Hitesh Modgil, dated last Saturday, Modgil offers a $1,000 bonus to striking employees who return to work.

“Every three years, we have a contract,” said Rivas, adding that that they typically come to an agreement with C&H. “There’s always a give and take.”

This year was different. “This year is the first year there was no negotiation — it was basically, ‘We want to take everything you guys have.'”

What changed? This year, Crockett’s C&H factory management brought in Rene Ruiz to negotiations, chief labor counsel for American Sugar Refining, C&H’s parent company. Ruiz’ biography states that he “trains employers on union avoidance and strike preparation.”

Right now, some 100 retired workers and about 20 active workers hired before 2008, some on the verge of retiring, are eligible for medical benefits from C&H. The new contract undoes that. In 2008, warehouse workers made some concessions, like discontinuing medical benefits for retirees.

“There’s people that worked in this plant for 40 years,” said Rivas. “A lot of them are in there on fixed incomes, and they rely on their medical. If that goes away, it’s gone for them.”

Overtime kicks in at time and a half after an eight-hour shift — a standard rule in California. Workers say C&H has mandatory overtime, and they’re regularly told to stay on more than 12 hours due to staffing issues. Most welcome the extra pay.

Under the proposed contract, overtime would not kick in until 40 hours have been worked in a week — the federal standard.

Rivas said that, aside from causing more safety risks for workers, the revision means higher-ups could keep them hoisting sugar for 12 hours Monday through Wednesday and then dismiss them the rest of the week, and they’d never see a dime of time and a half pay for the long days.
In 2003, warehouse workers walked out to support the sugar workers — not to protest their own contract.

“When we strike, we stand with each other,” said Rivas. “When the refinery went out in 2003, we joined them automatically.”

This time, sugar workers did not return the favor. Rivas said that several hundred workers were prepared to walk out alongside warehouse workers on Monday, but at the last minute, they refused.

“I remember standing with my father on the IBU picket line in San Francisco,” said Rivas, himself a grandfather now. “He’d kill me if I crossed the picket line.”