On July 15, Struggle-La Lucha interviewed Javis Payne, a member of the International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 6, and Clarence Thomas, an ILWU Local 10 retiree who is on the executive board of the Pacific Coast Pensioners Association.
Thomas introduced his ILWU brother Javis Payne, who has been a member of ILWU Local 6 for five years. “He is what I would best describe as a young rank-and-file leader,” Thomas said.
Payne reported that Local 6 is in the fifth week of a strike against C&H Sugar Refinery in Crockett, Calif. Originally known as California and Hawaiian Sugar Refining Company, C&H is trying to throw out substantial agreements in its contract with ILWU and cut union benefits.
Basically, C&H is insisting on:
- Taking away retiree healthcare benefits from current and future retirees;
- Reducing overtime pay, which the majority of the C&H workers rely on to earn a living;
- Eliminating the established seniority system for promotion and scheduling;
- Reducing available sick leave;
- Unfairly scheduling weekend work.
Payne says: “We, the members of ILWU Local 6, are not going for any of that.
The company offered a thousand-dollar signing bonus to break the solidarity of our union. They’re asking us to sell our seniority, along with our sick days.
We are in our fifth week of the strike to fight to save our union contract.
We have the support of ILWU on the West Coast and in Hawaii, especially ILWU Local 10 in San Francisco. The Filipino community is backing us up, and our local community in Crockett is giving their support.
The Filipino community is tied in because C&H gets sugar from the Philippine island of Negros. There is a labor struggle going on there. On April 19, the Philippine Army’s 79th Infantry Battalion killed 19 people in Toboso, on Negros Island. The killings came as Washington and Manila launched Balikatan 2026, their largest joint war games yet.
Lyle Prijoles, a leader of the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) from Hayward, California, was one of those killed. He was documenting conditions of sugar workers and linking their struggles to international networks.”
Payne says, “His death triggered a chain reaction from here all the way to the Philippines. The Filipino community is out here in support of our strike. We’re all fighting together.”
Clarence Thomas reported that C&H diverted a ship to Levin-Richmond Terminal, a private dry-bulk marine port. It handles scrap metal, cement, and coal. Local 10 longshore workers have honored and joined Local 6’s picket lines at C&H and subsequently Levin. One of the Ten Guiding Principles of the ILWU states, “every picket line must be respected as though it were our own.”
“It’s important for people to know that it is the longshore workers that take the raw sugar out of the ships with a backhoe,” Thomas said. “Brother Leo Robinson, who had such an illustrious career as a rank-and-file ILWU leader, trained me to operate the backhoe at Crockett.”
Payne said, “Workers began unloading the ship at the Levin terminal, where coal, petroleum products and other toxic industrial materials are handled. He said the sugar was dumped onto the piers and is being moved to the factory in industrial dump trucks.”
“Our employers are paying particular attention to our resolve and solidarity in fighting against concessionary bargaining with our Local 6 sisters and brothers at the bargaining table with C&H Sugar,” Thomas said. “We are trying to let our members know, particularly in Local 10, that this is a test run. If we don’t support the Local 6 strike, this will set the stage for what the employers will try to do to the Longshore Division contract negotiations in 2028.”
Thomas said, “This is where it starts, right here, and one of the most important things that we’re trying to get ILWU members to understand is that when we have picket duty, it’s part of all members’ obligation to volunteer at least three hours. We have some 1,600 members, and the support on the picket line will determine how much bargaining power the rank-and-file can show C&H and Levin at the point of production.
The American Sugar monopoly
In 2005, C&H Sugar was acquired by American Sugar Refining, a monopoly that also markets Domino and Florida Crystals. The company, now known as ASR Group, calls itself the world’s largest cane sugar refiner. Different labels conceal a unified corporate structure monopolizing major parts of sugar refining and distribution.
The company is controlled by the Fanjul brothers — Alfonso, José “Pepe,” Alexander and Andrés — whose family-owned sugar plantations, mills and port concessions in pre-revolutionary Cuba. After the 1959 revolution expropriated their holdings, the family relocated to Florida and rebuilt a multibillion-dollar sugar empire protected by U.S. tariffs, import quotas and subsidies. The Fanjuls are close allies of Donald Trump and major funders of the Cuban-exile political machine. They pour millions into U.S. political campaigns and lobby for high sugar prices as well as a broader campaign against socialist Cuba.
When the ASR Group took over, things began to go south. This is straight-up concessionary bargaining. What they have put on the table for Local 6, they said, “take it or leave it.”
Javis Payne says, “We’re not going for that. They’re now five weeks into a strike that has local and international ramifications. The ILWU expects the same fight up and down the coast in 2028. Local 6 is where it starts.”
Payne says, “People in Crockett are very much in support of the C&H workers. There’s going to be a Sugar Festival in Crockett on July 19. We plan on having a lot of our members here to be able to participate and to let them know how much the ILWU appreciates their support.”
Clarence Thomas notes that Crockett was a thriving company town located about nine miles from Richmond, California. Until C&H was acquired by American Sugar in 2005, there was a strong relationship between C&H and the local community.
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