THE LABYRINTH OF SOLIDARITY: A DIARY OF A UNION ORGANIZING DRIVE AND A FIRST CONTRACT NEGOTIATION

Abstract

This is a study of an ultimately successful attempt to form a union among mushroom workers at a large Pennsylvania mushroom processing operation. After laying out background material on the work, the industry, and the workforce, the article traces the history of the organizing attempt from a strike that occurred in 1993 through the execution of a collective bargaining agreement in 2002. In the course of describing the organizing drive, we offer our insights into issues that affect union organizing, contract negotiation, and legal factors that have implications far beyond what happened on this specific mushroom farm in southeastern Pennsylvania. We include aspects of management-labor relations that are, at least in part, shaped by the migrant and immigrant status of the workers and their cultural background. The article is based largely upon the authors’ observations of the events and their interviews with the workers and their supporters. The perspectives of the other players emerge primarily from the materials produced during the organizing drive and from legal documents and newspaper articles. The authors call the readers’ attention to the fact that we have spent much more time with the workers and their leaders than we have with management and its agents. Both of us have served as members of the union’s Advisory Board, participated in the organizing drive, conducted workshops for the workers and their leaders, and sat on the union side of the table during contract negotiations. While we have tried to be fair to both sides, we are much closer to the workers than we are to management, and we must admit to the possibility of an unconscious bias.