L.A.-area Unitarian church members taking food and supplies to Pictsweet

Leaves Santa Monica Saturday at 1 p.m.
L.A.-area Unitarian church members taking food and supplies to Pictsweet mushroom workers in Ventura County
     

Church members on Saturday will deliver food and materials donated by Unitarian Universalist congregations from across Southern California to Pictsweet Mushroom Farms workers in Ventura County who have been battling for 14 years to win a United Farm Workers contract. They will leave Santa Monica Unitarian Universalist Community Church at 1 p.m., bound for the UFW’s office in Oxnard.

Last year more than 30 congregations took part in the caravan bringing support to mushroom pickers at Pictsweet. This year’s effort is expected to reflect growing support, with contributions coming from as far away as Arizona and Nevada.

An administrative judge with the state Agricultural Labor Relations Board (ALRB) ruled in January that Pictsweet illegally fired mushroom worker Fidel Andrade in retaliation for his UFW support. A separate, detailed nine-count complaint was issued against Pictsweet on June 26, 2001 by prosecutors with the ALRB for a host of labor law violations, including bad faith bargaining and illegally attempting to get rid of the union.

"We want the workers to know we support their struggle to gain a UFW contract," says Maggie Pipes, a member of the Santa Monica Unitarian church and longtime liaison with the farm workers. "A UFW contract will improve working conditions, health care and other basic needs such as a pension plan."

Negotiations have dragged on since late 1999, 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.

Who:    Dozens of Unitarian church members, Pictsweet mushroom workers

What:   Car caravan of UU church members carrying food and supplies to Pictsweet mushroom workers from the Unitarian church in Santa Monica to the United Farm Workers office in Oxnard.

When:   Leaving Santa Monica at 1 p.m., arriving in Oxnard at approximately 3 p.m. on Saturday, March 2, 2002.

Where:  Unitarian Universalist Community Church at 1260 – 18th St. in Santa Monica; UFW office at 920 So. "A" St. in Oxnard.

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