The IBEW 1245 “Olam Solidarity Team” with Teamsters organizers and volunteers
More than 250 food processing workers are fighting for a union at the Olam Spice and Vegetable plant in Firebough, CA. The mostly-immigrant workers at Olam are seeking to join Teamsters local 890, and with just two weeks until their union election, they reached out to IBEW 1245 for support. Of course, Local 1245 didn’t hesitate to answer the call, promptly dispatching four bilingual organizing stewards to help the workers during this critical period.
The “Olam Solidarity Team” from Local 1245 — Nilda Garcia, Carl Olguin, PJ Saenz and Miguel Pagan — partnered up with the Teamsters staff and volunteers to help get the word out about the union election. On the first day, they visited the homes of more than 50 workers and spoke with many more outside of the Olam facility.
“A lot of workers came out and talked to us. They all wanted [union] stickers and signs, they want to be very visible at work!” said Local 1245 Organizing Steward Nilda Garcia. “We heard this morning that many of them parked their cars facing into the supervisors’ office, and all their cars have Teamster signs on their windshields!”
