Local Challenges to Labor Organizing in Mexican Immigrant Enclaves: Kaolin Mushroom Workers Union in Southeastern Pennsylvania

Historically, labor organizing in U.S. agriculture has proven to be a daunting challenge for countless farmworkers (McCurry & Rubenstein, 1975; Edid, 1994). Early attempts in the last century were mired in violence and bloodshed, and victories were brief and unsustainable. The successes of the1960s, such as the United Farmworkers Union (UFW) and Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC), which are at the forefront of farm labor organizing today, have suffered setbacks of their own in the workplace and courts (Mooney & Majka, 1995; Edid, 1994). Nonetheless, their relentless endeavors, together with creative approaches, have allowed these unions and others to overcome the political clout and economic resources of agribusiness. New labor unions, such as the Kaolin Mushroom Workers Union (KMWU) in Southeastern Chester County, Pennsylvania, are struggling. Besides resistance from growers, these unions are encountering local-level challenges specific to agricultural regions with growing Mexican immigrant enclaves and crop industries that hire transnational migrants. Transnational workers and immigrants, if not incorporated into organizing activities, keep a viable farm labor union from emerging in these regions.Local-level challenges to the labor organizing activities of Kaolin Mushroom workers- as I observed them while conducting ethnographic research in Southern Chester County-are examined in this paper.1 This agricultural area is one of many others found across the country where the labor force is mainly comprised of transnational migrants and recent immigrants. Specifically, I will focus on two major trouble areas for creating a union-the organizing of transnational migrants and the building of grassroots support for a union among the immigrant population. As the Kaolin Mushroom workers learned first-hand, when organizing their fellow mushroom harvesters, transnational migrants are reluctant to participate in union-building activities, fearful of being dismissed and losing earnings that sustain their families back home. In terms of the second trouble area, grassroots backing, they had a difficult time generating support among the local Mexican immigrant population. Building grassroots support among local immigrants is difficult for a variety of reasons. The two leading agricultural unions of the nation, the UFW and FLOC, did not face these challenges early in their organizing efforts, at least not to the same degree as the Kaolin Mushroom workers. Now however, these two major unions are discovering for themselves the difficulty of organizing transnational migrants and generating grassroots support in newly established Mexican immigrant communities.From the outset, I want to inform the reader that I am not a labor scholar and have not studied the organizing efforts of the Kaolin Mushroom workers. I am an ethnographer who has researched a variety of issues in the region (see Garcia, 1992; 1997; 2005). In August of 1994, a few months after the strike at Kaolin Mushroom Farms, I moved into the borough of Kennett Square, home base of Kaolin Mushroom workers. 2 As a resident of the community for nearly eight months, while examining the growth and emergence of Mexican immigrant enclaves in Southern Chester County, I witnessed the organizing efforts of the dismissed Kaolin workers and the responses of local residents (for further information about his research see Garcia, 1997; 2005; Garcia & Gonzalez, 1995). While away from the area, from 1994 to 2000, I kept abreast of the Kaolin workers movement through newspaper coverage, industry newsletters, and my key informants.3 In August 2000, I returned to Kennett Square, a few months after the Pennsylvania State Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Kaolin Mushroom Workers Union. This time, while living in the community for little over a year, I carried out an exploratory study of problem drinking among transnational Mexican workers. This second stay in Kennett Square allowed me to observe the changes that had taken place among the Mexican population since 1994 (for further information see Garcia, 2002). …