C&H Sugar, Striking Workers to Meet for First Time in Monthlong Strike
Source: KQED
The sugar company wants to cut benefits and increase pay, but workers say the compromise isn’t worth it.
Jul 12, 2026 Updated Jul 13, 2026
By Samantha Kennedy
Workers at C&H Sugar hope to sit down at the negotiating table with the company this week, after dozens walked out last month over disputes about retirement benefits and overtime.
The talks will be the first since the strike began. They come only days after allied workers who typically unload the sugar at the Crockett refinery said some of the operations were outsourced to a terminal in Richmond because they joined the picket line.
Around 90 International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 6 warehouse workers at the refinery started an open-ended strike on June 15 following an impasse in negotiations. C&H dockworkers from ILWU Local 10 refused to cross the picket line and joined the strike in solidarity.
Cesar Garibay, a business agent with ILWU Local 6, said he was hopeful that the company would come with better offers to the negotiating table.
The California and Hawaiian Sugar Company (C&H Sugar) refinery on May 18, 2013, in Crockett, California, refines, packages and markets cane sugar from Hawaii. (Robert Alexander/Archive Photos/Getty Images)
Read more: https://www.kqed.org/news/12090638/ch-sugar-striking-workers-to-meet-for-first-time-in-month-long-strike