May 5, 2000
Petaluma nursery workers vote for UFW on ‘Cinco de Mayo’ Some 70 workers at a large Petaluma nursery marked "Cinco de May"–the anniversary of Mexico’s defeat of French troops in the 1862 Battle of Puebla–by voting overwhelmingly to be represented by the Cesar Chavez-founded United Farm Workers. Employees at Vinifera Inc., at 4288 Bodega Hwy. in Petaluma, voted 35 to five for the UFW. Balloting supervised by the state Agricultural Labor Relations Board ended at 12:30 p.m. on Friday at the Sonoma County company. It came one day after the UFW won its first major foothold in California’s strawberry industry. The Vinifera vote is the UFW’s 20th election victory since union President Arturo Rodriguez kicked off a new organizing drive in 1994. Since then, the UFW has also signed 24 new–or first-time–union contracts with growers. UFW membership has grown to more than 27,000 today, from about 20,000 in 1994. Vinifera workers turned for help to the union’s office in Santa Rosa on March 1. They complained about a host of grievances, including speed-ups, no seniority or job security, favoritism on the job, few if any benefits, lack of protection from pesticides and abuse by a labor contractor. Vinifera produces and sells a variety of plant products, including grapevine plants that are sold to the wine industry. It is a subsidary of Agritope Inc. of Portland, Ore., a publicly-traded agricultural biotechnology firm. The UFW won an election in Sonoma County at Balletto Farms, the North Coast’s largest vegetable grower, in 1998 and workers there are now protected by a union contract. The UFW is presently negotiating with Gallo of Sonoma, the county’s largest wine grape producer. The union also has contracts with three Napa County and one Mendocino County wine grape companies. On Thursday the ALRB certified the UFW as bargaining representative for the Ventura County workers of Coastal Berry Co., the nation’s largest direct employer of strawberry workers. A rival group, the Coastal Berry of California Farm Workers Committee, was certified to represent Coastal Berry workers in Monterey and Santa Cruz counties. Ventura County pickers voted for the UFW in a 1999 election. At the same time, workers on the Central Coast chose the committee. – end –