Windmill mushroom boycott gains momentum

Picking up a valuable Oregon endorsement, mushroom workers are pushing forward with a national petition raising community support for their boycott

SUNNYSIDE, WA (September 24, 2025) — Energy is building around the United Farm Workers-led boycott of Windmill Mushrooms, initiated in response to years of union-busting and mistreatment of farmworkers by the company’s current and past owners. Earlier this month, the Oregon AFL-CIO joined the Washington State Labor Council in endorsing the boycott, urging union families and all supporters of working people in the Pacific Northwest to stand with mushroom workers.

That endorsement came out of the 2025 biennial Oregon AFl-CIO Convention, where delegates from unions across the state unanimously voted to pass a resolution endorsing a boycott of Windmill Farms mushroom products.

“The Oregon Labor Movement will always stand in solidarity with farm workers facing exploitation and intimidation from employers who prioritize corporate greed over fair and safe working conditions,” said Oregon AFL-CIO President Graham Trainor in a statement. “By endorsing a boycott of Windmill Farms mushroom products, we’re imploring working class Oregonians to use their power by withholding support to influence Windmill Farms to do the right thing and recognize their employees’ union.”

Windmill mushroom workers and supporters rallying in Vancouver, WA in July. Photo: Owain Waszak

Unlike most workers in the U.S., farmworkers are excluded from the labor rights enshrined in the National Labor Relations Act.

“For years, the farm workers at Windmill Mushroom Farm have had one demand: a union,” said UFW President Teresa Romero in a statement. “In a just world, a simple majority of the workers wanting a union would be enough to make it happen. Yet because of farm workers’ exclusion from basic labor laws, we are forced to rely on public boycotts to pressure Windmill Farms into doing the right thing. Our boycott strategy would not be possible without the solidarity of the entire labor movement.”

The current and former workers at Windmill Mushroom face an all too familiar reality for farm workers nationwide; they are unprotected by many labor laws, essential to the production of the food on our tables, yet increasingly targeted by militarized and dehumanizing immigration enforcement. Despite the precarity this country’s laws force on them, mushroom workers are refusing to back down from their fight for a union.

Now, the workers are moving forward with a nationwide petition directed at Instar, the private equity company that owns Windmill mushrooms, drumming up support for their ongoing fight. One anonymous worker shared why he and his colleagues felt a boycott was necessary, after multiple attempts to start a dialogue with Instar went unanswered by the company.

“At Windmill Farms we are mistreated. We are scolded for not doing the work properly, even though we are doing what is asked,” said the worker. “We are shunned for asking the supervisors questions and we fear speaking with our co-workers. We want union representation to be secure through a union contract.”

TAKE A STAND: Sign the workers’ petition demanding that Instar recognize the union Windmill Farms workers elected.