[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 128 (Saturday, August 4, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1760]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          BLUE DIAMOND GROWERS

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. DEVIN NUNES

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, August 3, 2007

  Mr. NUNES. Madam Speaker, on behalf of Representative Kevin McCarthy 
and myself, I would like to address remarks that were made on the House 
floor concerning a grower owned nonprofit marketing cooperative in our 
districts.
  Yesterday, during debate related to the 2008 Agriculture 
Appropriations bill, inaccurate information was conveyed that 
undermined the integrity of Blue Diamond Growers. I take this 
opportunity to provide clarifying facts to my colleagues.
  Blue Diamond is approaching its 100th anniversary as a nonprofit 
marketing cooperative for thousands of growers in California. Many of 
the grower members live in my district, and produce the world's best 
almonds. Blue Diamond is very proud of the fact that the average tenure 
of its employees is approximately twenty years. This is an outstanding 
record and demonstrates employee satisfaction with their jobs.
  The International Longshoreman and Warehouseman's Union has tried to 
organize Blue Diamond since the late 1980s. They have had no success. 
Diamond's employees do not want to be in the union and express high job 
satisfaction. In 1990, the ILWU held an election at Blue Diamond and 
lost. As recently as May of 2005, Blue Diamond asked the NLRB to hold 
an election so that Blue Diamond's employees would have the opportunity 
to vote on whether or not they wished to be members of the ILWU. The 
ILWU immediately filed a letter with the NLRB stating that they had no 
interest in representing Blue Diamond workers. Therefore, the election 
was cancelled. Blue Diamond is ready and willing to hold an election, 
supervised by the NLRB, at any time the employees want it.
  Since that time, the ILWU has filed numerous complaints with the 
NLRB. The original complaints have been resolved to the satisfaction of 
the NLRB. They covered three employee terminations. It is my 
understanding that the employees were fired for actions endangering 
their own personal safety or threatening food quality. However, the 
NLRB found that two of the firings were improper and those employees 
were re-hired and given all of their back pay and benefits. The NLRB 
found the third firing to be proper.
  In what appears to be an ongoing harassment action against Blue 
Diamond Growers, the ILWU filed three additional complaints over the 
firing of employees. The NLRB held all of these firings to be proper, 
and found in favor of Blue Diamond.
  Madam Speaker, it is important to have the record clear on this 
matter, since Blue Diamond Growers treats its employees fairly in all 
respects. This is clearly demonstrated by the length of employment of 
most of the employees. I hope that in the future, Representatives 
concerned about the rights of workers in our districts would more fully 
examine the facts before making unfounded claims on the House Floor. 
Blue Diamond Growers and the thousands of farmers and workers who they 
represent deserve better from this House.




                          ____________________