The Ballad of the Workers (ranchera) words: Vidal Ochoa, music: Jesús (Lolo) Rivas
Washington Fruit is a powerful company that doesn’t respect rights, not even of night and day.
The morning shift’s a struggling shift that makes the company a lot of money. But it’s the afternoon shift, a fighting and hardworking shift, that deserves a song. When Pedro was fired, Marcelino and Maria united the rest, and defended Pedro courageously. One day they all got together. They started to think, “They abuse us so much that we can’t take it! They fired Maria; they won’t let her work. Mercedes got hurt, and they don’t want to help her.” They met during lunch, where they share bread. There they formed their plans. God was pleased that they united like brothers. They decided to take the future in their own hands. This stays in my memory like a whisper. History has been changed, and I say it with pride.
The Ballad of the Workers is a song from the courageous organizing campaigns of the predominantly Mexican immigrant meat and fruit packing workers in eastern Washington and Oregon. Today, Teamsters Local 556 leads the movement for justice for food processing workers in the region.