MAY DAY MARCH FOR “UN OTRO MUNDO”

The old Boise Cascade plywood mill, closed in 2006. The original mill complex on the Yakima River was started in 1903.
by David Bacon
The Progressive / On The Line – 7/21/17

The face of work and poverty in Yakima ranges from a closed mill of the city’s past to the agricultural fields of its present.

At the edge of town is the rusting structure of the old Boise Cascade plywood plant, where many of this small city’s people worked for over a hundred years. Little houses in the surrounding neighborhood were originally built for mill workers. Now many are the homes of laborers in the valley’s fields and packing sheds. Yakima always was and still is a farm worker town.

The closure of the plant is one reason why those homes have seen better days. Rick, who lives in a tent camp set up by homeless people on the street downtown, says he’d like things to go back to the way they used to be. “There was work for everyone,” he remembers.

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