Sakuma Brothers Farms Delivers MOU to Familias Unidas por la Justicia (FUJ)

Burlington, Washington. – July 7, 2016 – Sakuma Brothers Farms announced yesterday that on June 27, 2016 it delivered a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to Familias Unidas por la Justicia (FUJ) that establishes a process for a secret ballot election to enable the Farm’s seasonal harvest employees to freely choose whether to allow FUJ to represent them and negotiate on their behalf.

Roger van Oosten told SkagitBreaking.com,  “This was the initiative and the idea of our CEO, Dan Weeden. He came to Sakuma a year ago and has been looking for a way to both protect his employees rights and to give them a change to make a decision.”

If FUJ is elected, the MOU further provides a means for Sakuma and FUJ to negotiate and implement an agreement that is fair for everyone.

“Through this MOU, we have established a process to allow to our employees the ability to exercise their freedom of choice through a secret ballot election process managed by a neutral third party. I insist on this because my concern, now and always, is for the security and rights of Sakuma’s harvest employees,” said Danny Weeden, Sakuma CEO. “It is important to me that our employees have the opportunity to decide whether or not they want to pay FUJ to be their representative. We are taking a leadership position on this issue to ensure our employees have the right to make their own decisions.”

While agricultural unions are not recognized by Washington or federal law, the MOU provides a transparent secret ballot election process for Sakuma Brothers Farms’ harvest employees to decide whether they want to be represented by FUJ.  If FUJ wins a majority of the vote, the MOU further provides a means for Sakuma and FUJ to negotiate and implement a binding agreement.

Sakuma Family Business is a vertically integrated organization consisting of Sakuma Brothers Farm, Norcal Nursery and Sakuma Brothers Processing. They do research and development, and run a commercial small fruit nursery, full production small fruit farm, and processing plant. Sakuma grows strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, apples and more, and sell everything they grow and process through national and international markets.

Sakuma Brothers Farms is an 85-year-old family business. The family relocated their farming business from Bainbridge Island to Skagit Valley in the 1930s, after surviving the internment camps of WWII, and has been farming ever since. Initially only farming strawberries in its earliest days, the farm has expanded and diversified to what it is today.  Sakuma believes strongly that its employees are its greatest asset.