ALRB prosecutors charge Pictsweet refused to bargain,
used pay and jobs to oppose union contract for workers
In a detailed nine-count complaint issued Tuesday (June 26), prosecutors with the state Agricultural Labor Relations Board affirmed worker charges that Pictsweet Mushroom Farms in Ventura has violated a host of state labor laws in its bid to avoid negotiating a union contract with the United Farm Workers of America.
Among the counts in the consolidated complaint issued against Pictsweet by ALRB El Centro Regional Director Kerry M. Donnell are refusing to provide information to the UFW that it needed to bargain, laying off mushroom workers without talking with the union, granting a worker a job transfer in return for signing a petition to decertify the UFW and discontinuing biennial wage increases without negotiating with the union, the workers’ official bargaining representative. The firm employs more than 350 mushroom workers.
"The state has supported the workers’ charges against Pictsweet," states UFW President Arturo Rodriguez. The ALRB complaint "is just another example of how this company has refused to heed its workers’ pleas for a voice on the job, decent working conditions and a livable wage to support their families." Included in the farm labor board complaint are the following:
• Since October 2000, Pictsweet has refused to provide the union with requested relevant information regarding its profit-sharing proposal. State law says good faith bargaining requires employers to supply information necessary for the union to bargain intelligently.
• Since September 2000, the company unilaterally laid off employees without notifying or bargaining with the UFW over the decision and the affects of the decision in violation of California law.
• In late November 2000, Pictsweet conditioned the granting of a job transfer to a worker if he would sign a petition to trigger a decertification election to oust the union as the workers’ bargaining agent. State law expressly prohibits a grower from coercing workers from exercising their right to organize and bans discrimination in terms and conditions of employment based on employees’ exercise of their organizing rights.
• In August 2000, after workers renewed their demands to negotiate a union contract, the employer unilaterally discontinued the historic practice of issuing minimal piece rate increases of 1¢ or 2¢ per unit every two years.
• In September 2000, Pictsweet unilaterally violated an interim agreement with the UFW that recalls from layoffs would be accomplished by seniority, without notifying and bargaining with the union.
The next step is for the ALRB’s executive secretary in Sacramento to set a date for a formal hearing on the complaint before an administrative law judge with the farm labor board.
Workers at the Pictsweet plant in Ventura earn up to 15% less than mushroom workers employed at other California fresh mushroom ranches where there are UFW contracts. Pictsweet workers also want an end to on-the-job favoritism and a better medical plan.
Negotiations have gone on since January 2000 with Pictsweet refusing to respond to the workers’ basic demands, the UFW states. The Cesar Chavez-founded union has contracts protecting about 70% of the mushroom workers on California’s Central Coast.
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