Msg # 86   
Date: 05 Jun 91  15:04:00
From: Nyt News
  To: All
Subj: GREEN GIANT RELOCATES TO MEXICO
____________________________________________________________________________

 Via NY Transfer News Service 718-448-2358, 718-448-2683
Conf: carnet.mexnews: 58.0
Topic: Green Giant Relocates to Mexico
Written: 4:45 pm Jun 4, 1991 by hfrederick in cdp:carnet.mexnews

                  --FOR JOBS, JUSTICE, AND ENVIRONMENT--

                                 BOYCOTT

                          PILLSBURY-GREEN GIANT

           AND GRAND MET PRODUCTS: BURGER KING AND HAAGEN DAZS

      David versus Goliath...Trabajadores Desplazados, a group of
    laid-off Green Giant frozen food workers from Watsonville
    California, has begun a boycott campaign for "Jobs, justice, and
    environment" against Pillsbury-Green Giant and its parent company,
    Grand Metropolitan of Great Britain.

      After averaging 14 years, on-call day and night, processing and
    packaging locally grown vegetables and earning $7.61 per hour with
    medical and retirement benefits under union contract, hundreds of
    Green Giant workers in Watsonville learned their jobs were gone.
    Pillsbury-Green Giant announced relocation of vegetable production
    to Irapuato, Mexico, paying employees there about $4 a day with
    few benefits.

      The Grand Met-Pillsbury-Green Giant global strategy is to sell
    brand name food products at high prices that are grown, processed,
    and exported from countries where wages and costs of environmental
    protections are the lowest.  The profits and impacts from this
    strategy foretell the effects of a U.S.-Mexico free trade
    agreement.

      By relocating to Mexico, Pillsbury-Green Giant increases annual
    profits by $6 million on reduced wages alone, according to
    Teamsters Local 912, representing the laid-off workers.  The
    company also profits from lower operating costs because of
    Mexico's minimal enforcement of environmental protections.
    Pillsbury-Green Giant's run-away to Mexico is "avarice, pure
    greed," say union officials.

      While company profits grow, Pillsbury-Green Giant workers, their
    families, and communities are left with unemployment in
    Watsonville, or starvation wages in Irapuato.  "We helped them
    make their millions, now we are left with nothing but backaches
    and twisted fingers," said a 15-year Green Giant worker laid off
    in Watsonville.  In Irapuato, a Green Giant employees says, " If
    Green Giant were here to help us, they would pay a decent wage.
    We have no hopes for improving our lives."  Irapuato workers tell
    of being unable to feed their families on Pillsbury-Green Giant
    paychecks, and of other workers being fired for attempting to
    organize a union.

      Pillsbury-Green Giant operations in Mexico -- the cultivation
    for export of non-indigenous crops with massive usage and disposal
    of scarce water resources for irrigation and food processing --
    contributes to hunger, illness, and significant environmental
    impacts for the people of Mexico.

                   "FOR JOBS, JUSTICE, AND ENVIRONMENT"

      The displace workers of Watsonville ask you to boycott all
    products of the Pillsbury-Green Giant corporation, and Grand Met's
    Burger King and Haagen Dazs.


                         TRABAJADORES DESPLAZADOS
                      BOYCOTT PILLSBURY-GREEN GIANT
                434 MAIN ST. #222, WATSONVILLE, CA. 95076
                              (408) 728-5671


End of text from cdp:carnet.mexnews


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