Uploaded November 2020 | Updated September 2026, 13 hours ago
This award recognizes grassroots H&S activists in Local Unions or other local organizations
fighting for the H&S rights of workers. Ramon Torres is president of Familias Unidas por la Justicia, an independent farm worker union of indigenous families located in Burlington, WA, representing over 500 Triqui, Mixteco, and Spanish speaking workers at Sakuma Bros. Berry
Farm. Ramon has been president of the union since 2013 and has negotiated some of the fairest contracts with growers in the history of farmworker rights in the US. More recently, Ramon has helped organize six concurrent strikes of farmworkers to demand better protections for farmworker members from COVID-19. Ramon’s work is best illustrated by this testimony he presented: “For many years we as farm workers have been ignored in the law. We will no
longer let this continue. We are the ones who produce the food you eat. We are the skilled workers who ensure that the agricultural economy in our state continues to grow. We as the farm workers members of Familias Unidas por la Justicia were told by many that farm workers could not start or much less sustain a union in this state that does not have an Agricultural Labor Relations Act to protect us. But we decided that we would form a union so that farm workers could work with a Union Contract with dignity and we accomplished that...We are proud that we were able to do this but it is only the beginning. This year in Sumas, Washington, a farm worker died, Honesto Silva Ibarra. He was 28 years old and the father of two children. His death
would have been ignored but for the courage of his co-workers who walked off the farm and called us, the Union and had the courage to tell their stories of inadequate water, of substandard food, of the farm supervisors ignoring health and injury concerns and lack of adequate or timely wages.” This award is named for Tony Mazzocchi (1926-2002), a highly influential labor leader in the occupational health and safety field in the U.S. Tony played a key role in the legislative struggles of the 1960s and 1970s, including passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act in 1970. A founder of the Labor Party, he continued organizing support for the party's national health care program up until his death.
This award recognizes grassroots H&S activists in Local Unions or other local organizations
fighting for the H&S rights of workers. Ramon Torres is president of Familias Unidas por la Justicia, an independent farm worker union of indigenous families located in Burlington, WA, representing over 500 Triqui, Mixteco, and Spanish speaking workers at Sakuma Bros. Berry
Farm. Ramon has been president of the union since 2013 and has negotiated some of the fairest contracts with growers in the history of farmworker rights in the US. More recently, Ramon has helped organize six concurrent strikes of farmworkers to demand better protections for farmworker members from COVID-19. Ramon’s work is best illustrated by this testimony he presented: “For many years we as farm workers have been ignored in the law. We will no
longer let this continue. We are the ones who produce the food you eat. We are the skilled workers who ensure that the agricultural economy in our state continues to grow. We as the farm workers members of Familias Unidas por la Justicia were told by many that farm workers could not start or much less sustain a union in this state that does not have an Agricultural Labor Relations Act to protect us. But we decided that we would form a union so that farm workers could work with a Union Contract with dignity and we accomplished that...We are proud that we were able to do this but it is only the beginning. This year in Sumas, Washington, a farm worker died, Honesto Silva Ibarra. He was 28 years old and the father of two children. His death
would have been ignored but for the courage of his co-workers who walked off the farm and called us, the Union and had the courage to tell their stories of inadequate water, of substandard food, of the farm supervisors ignoring health and injury concerns and lack of adequate or timely wages.” This award is named for Tony Mazzocchi (1926-2002), a highly influential labor leader in the occupational health and safety field in the U.S. Tony played a key role in the legislative struggles of the 1960s and 1970s, including passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act in 1970. A founder of the Labor Party, he continued organizing support for the party's national health care program up until his death.
