The past few years have seen a flurry of workers organizing across the country, from Starbucks and Amazon workers to new forms of cooperative ownership and governance sharing. NPQ’s column, We Stood Up, features the voices of people doing the hard work of realizing economic justice in their workplaces. These stories come from workers who want to share their experiences building a democratic economy and a fairer world so that others can learn from their efforts.
We work hard to care for and pick the grapes, yet the bosses tell us to work faster. And we’re paid for how much we harvest…so the pressure is intense.
If you have consumed wine from California’s Sonoma County, there’s a chance those grapes came through my hands. I’ve worked in the vineyard for seven years. I immigrated to the United States from Cuernavaca, Mexico in 2001. Depending on the season, I am one of more than 7,000 farmworkers in Sonoma County who harvest grapes or prepare the soil for planting. There is a lot I like about this work. I get to be in nature, I have a community of fellow farmworkers, and I love seeing the sunrise.
But there are challenges, too. We work from 6:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., so I wake up early to pack lunch for my kids and me and drive to wherever I’m working that day. We work outdoors our entire shift, even during cold winters and hot summers. Some of my coworkers speak Indigenous languages, but our bosses only communicate in English or Spanish. We work hard to care for and pick the grapes, yet the bosses tell us to work faster. And we’re paid for how much we harvest, not an hourly wage, so the pressure is intense. It’s difficult. We’re not machines. We’re human beings, and we need rest.
The work has become even more difficult because wildfires, drought, and floods bring new risks. In 2017, I worked after the Sonoma County wildfire. The ashes on the grapes and the smoke in the air bothered my eyes and throat, but I had to keep working because I needed money for rent and bills.
I remember attending a farmworker meeting in 2020 at which I heard other farmworkers talk about the challenges they faced. I learned about my rights with the help of North Bay Jobs with Justice. I realized that I was not alone.
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We don’t seek to cause problems, we just want workplaces that are healthy and safe, and wages that provide enough for our families.
But speaking up was still scary. Initially, we were just five workers. We asked for better conditions—including hazard pay, information in Indigenous languages, clean water and bathrooms, an insurance fund for possible work interruptions, and provisions for community observers to enforce workplace protections.
We feared we would get fired, but we recruited more coworkers, and we reminded each other that lifting our voices together would lead to change—and it did.
Now, the five wineries we work for in Sonoma and Napa County guarantee hazard pay for working in unhealthy air, and two guarantee disaster pay. Now I can tell my boss I don’t want to risk my life under extreme conditions, and they respect my decision; I couldn’t do that before. Or, if I must work in hazardous conditions, at least I am paid time-and-a-half. These protections are important. We don’t know what dangers each year will bring, but we know we have had to work in fires, floods, and heavy rain.
We celebrate the wins we have achieved, but we know our work isn’t over. Teaching our coworkers about their rights and organizing them to advocate for themselves is ongoing work. I want my fellow workers to know that your work is valuable. I want winery owners to know that we don’t seek to cause problems, we just want workplaces that are healthy and safe, and wages that provide enough for our families. We’re not against you; we just want you to value our work.
