For Release: Sept. 10, 1999
Pact with Charles Krug-Mondavi is the UFW’s third Napa Valley wine contract
A new agreement between the United Farm Workers and St. Helena-based Charles Krug-Mondavi Vineyards is the third contract between the Cesar Chavez-founded UFW and a wine grape grower in California’s Napa Valley.
The 50 vineyard workers at Krug-Mondavi won a 5% pay increase in the agreement’s first year to $8.40 an hour with 10¢ per hour wage hikes in the second and third years of the three-year contract. Non-union Napa Valley wine grape workers earn about $7 an hour, with no benefits.
In addition, the contract provides comprehensive medical benefits for workers and their dependents; a pension plan; seven paid holidays a year; paid vacations; seniority rights; protections for workers involving layoffs, recalls, transfers and promotions; a grievance and arbitration procedure; and three days of bereavement pay to attend the funerals of close family members.
The agreement was ratified by the workers on Aug. 29. It took effect Sept. 1.
The UFW recently signed a contract on behalf of 80 workers at Vista Vineyard Management and in 1996 won a pact covering the 80 employees at St. Supury Vineyards. Both firms are in the Napa Valley.
Workers at Krug-Mondavi voted for the union in a state-supervised secret ballot election in the late 1980s. An initial UFW contract with the company expired in 1992, and was not re-negotiated until this year. The companies wines are sold under the Charles Krug label.
The Krug-Mondavi agreement is the UFW’s 23rd contract with a grower since union President Arturo Rodriguez kicked off a new union organizing and contract negotiation drive in 1994. Since then the UFW has also won 18 union elections.
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