Tuesday 5 p.m. billboard, 5:30 p.m. council debate
Oakland council challenges huge Central Valley grower at anniversary of Cesar Chavez’s death
Gerawan workers & supporters ‘human billboard’ at City Hall
Two days before the 22nd anniversary of Cesar Chavez’s passing, the Oakland City Council enters an epic battle by farm workers to implement their union contract against a giant Central Valley grower—reminiscent of 1960s farm labor conflicts—by voting on Tuesday, April 21 for a measure calling on Gerawan Farming to honor a contract issued in 2013 by a neutral mediator and approved by the state. Gerawan, one of the nation’s largest tree fruit and grape growers, sells its products in the Bay Area under the Prima label. The Fresno-based company, with 5,000 workers at peak season, is avoiding millions of dollars in pay increases and other benefits by refusing to honor the union contract.
More than a dozen Gerawan farm workers traveling from the Fresno area, as well as local supporters, will form a human billboard line at 5 p.m. at Oakland City Hall, 1 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza, and speak during the council debate on the measure by Councilmember Abel Guillen.
The resolution calls upon Gerawan Farming “to meet basic standards of fair conduct, including refraining from hindering workers’ efforts to organize, bargaining in bad faith, and intimidating employees in their attempts to exercise employee rights, and to immediately implement the union contract issued by the neutral mediator and the state of California.”
Similar resolutions have been unanimously passed by the Los Angeles City Council, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, city councils in Berkeley and Long Beach, and the L.A. Unified School District Board of Education. See: http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-union-fresno-farmworkers-20141022-story.html and http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-la-unified-backs-ufw-20150210-story.html
An administrative judge with the Agricultural Labor Relations Board recently concluded six months of hearings in Fresno with sworn testimony on sweeping complaints or indictments from state prosecutors charging Gerawan with multiple, serious and repeated violations of the law aimed at “prevent[ing] the UFW from ever representing its employees under a [union contract]” and at decertifying, or getting rid, of the UFW, according to the ALRB general counsel, who issued the complaints. See: http://www.ufw.org/_board.php?mode=view&b_code=gerawan_legal&b_no=15722&page=1&field=&key=&n=11
The latest state-issued complaint says, “Gerawan and its supervisors” unlawfully supported workers who “stopped work and engaged in anti-UFW and anti-ALRB protests [to promote] decertification [and that] Gerawan…coerc[ed] workers into participating in protests,” and Gerawan closed its fields, directing workers to pro-company demonstrations. Gerawan also engaged in threats, interrogation and surveillance of workers, state prosecutors allege.
Meanwhile, Gerawan reacts to the indicting complaints by claiming, without any proof, that state investigators and prosecutors are biased. A slick PR campaign by radical right-wing groups based in Washington, D.C. and affiliated with Grover Norquist, who is backed by the Koch brothers, is being orchestrated on Gerawan’s behalf. See: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arturo-s-rodriguez/bigmoney-radical-right-gr_b_5786868.html
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