2 p.m., August 9, in Salinas
D’Arrigo workers use Sunday march to rally support for walkouts
Hundreds of D’Arrigo Bros. workers will use a march on Sunday in Salinas to rally public support behind their walkouts demanding a union contract with the huge vegetable producer. During the last week, most of the firm’s 900 Salinas Valley harvest workers have walked off their jobs. Despite company ultimatums to return to work or risk being fired, nearly 400 remained off the job Thursday and Friday.
Workers are using the walkouts to protest the grower’s failure to bargain in good faith and sign a union contract 23 years after field laborers voted for the United Farm Workers. It is the largest job action to hit Salinas Valley vegetable fields since a bitter 1979 strike.
Workers taking part in the work stoppages on Thursday and Friday in rapini fields near Greenfield turned back attempts to import strikebreakers who left the fields or joined picketlines after appeals for support of the walkouts. D’Arrigo grows brocoli, cauliflower, onions, rapini and mixed lettuce from Castroville to Greenfield.
Who: Hundreds of D’Arrigo Bros. vegetable workers and their supporters.
What: A march to rally public support for field walkouts demanding a UFW contract with D’Arrigo.
When: March begins at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 9, 1998.
Where: Begins and ends at the Cesar Chavez Library, 615 Williams Rd. (at Bardin Wy.) in Salinas. (From Hwy. 101 south take John St. exit east; John St. turns into Williams Rd. at East Alisal St.)
On Friday, the UFW filed unfair labor practice charges against D’Arrigo with the Agricultural Labor Relations Board. They accuse the company of bad faith bargaining and making unilateral changes in working conditions without first bargaining with the union as required by law.
D’Arrigo workers voted for the UFW in a state-conducted secret ballot election held in 1975, shortly after the farm labor law took effect. Current worker grievances include low pay, no pension plan, job security or seniority protections, no grievance and arbitration procedure, and a company medical plan that workers can’t afford to use due to costly out-of-pocket expenses.
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