Aug. 6, 1998
Scabs leave D’Arrigo fields as walkouts continue in push for contract; UFW filing charges of bad faith bargaining
Despite threats to fire workers refusing to return to their jobs, hundreds of D’Arrigo Bros. vegetable workers today continued walkouts in the Salinas Valley protesting the company’s failure to bargain in good faith for a union contract 23 years after field laborers voted for the United Farm Workers.
In rapini fields near Greenfield, 200 strikebreakers imported by D’Arrigo heeded appeals from workers who had walked out by refusing to work. By mid-day, more than half of the strikebreakers had left the fields. The rest were not harvesting.
"That’s a tremendous victory for the workers," states UFW President Arturo Rodriguez. During a bargaining session on Wednesday, the company issued an ultimatum for workers to go back to their jobs Thursday or risk being fired. The threat, which Rodriguez says amounts to "illegal retaliation for engaging in protected union activity," was repeated in commercials sponsored by D’Arrigo and aired on local Spanish-language television.
Despite the threats, roughly 350 D’Arrigo workers didn’t work today. In the largest job action to hit Salinas Valley vegetable fields in many years, most of D’Arrigo’s 900 farm workers walked off their jobs Wednesday demanding the huge grower bargain in good faith for a contract. D’Arrigo produces brocoli, cauliflower, onion, rapini, mixed lettuce and cactus in fields stretching from Castroville to Greenfield.
Meanwhile, the UFW announced it will file unfair labor practice charges against D’Arrigo with the Agricultural Labor Relations Board on Thursday or Friday charging the company with bad faith bargaining and making unilateral changes in working conditions without bargaining with the union. Three bargaining sessions have been held since last May when workers once again began pressing D’Arrigo for progress in negotiations. But the company has refused to provide the union with a contract proposal. The UFW presented D’Arrigo with a complete union proposal on June 9.
In other soon-to-be-filed unfair labor practice charges, the UFW will accuse D’Arrigo with importing labor contractor Blaz Packing to perform work in its lettuce, broccoli and mixed lettuce fields. Such conduct violates the Agricultural Labor Relations Act, which requires employers to negotiate with the workers’ certified bargaining representative–in this case the UFW–before implementing major changes in working conditions.
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.
D’Arrigo employs roughly 1,500 workers in vegetable fields surrounding Salinas, Huron and Brawley. Some 900 work in the Salinas Valley area.
– end –