April 13, 1997: 0ver 30,000 marched in Watsonville in support of the UFW’s strawberry campaign

 

February 12, 1998

’98 strawberry organizing drive
builds on last year’s victories

Major gains won by strawberry workers on California’s Central Coast during the 1997 berry harvest laid the foundation for renewed organizing efforts by the United Farm Workers as preparations get underway for this yearts season.

"Momentum is building for change in the strawberry fields," notes UFW President Arturo Rodriguez. "Strawberry workers can point to solid progress they achieved last year."

• In direct response to UFW organizing activities, many strawberry growers provided modest pay raises, medical plans, some paid vacations and better field conditions.

• Workers at one large strawberry company won $575,000 in back pay for being forced to work off the clock after filing their owil federal class action lawsuit with the UFW’s help.

• Some of the strawberry workers who suffered discrimination for supporting the UFW won $40,000 in back pay.

• More than 30,000 farm workers and supporters marched to support strawberry workers’ rights last April in Watsoriville.

• Also formally endorsing berry workers’ fundamental right to organize were more than 4,600 supermarkets across North America–including four of the seven largest retail food companies in the country.

• Legal notices were given over grower violations of Proposition 65, California’s 1996 voter-approved anti-toxics initiative. The notices charged that growers failed to notify strawberry workers they were being exposed to the pesticide captan. It effectively resulted in most strawberry growers on the Central Coast abandoning use of the cancer-causing chemical.

• Two federal class action lawsuits were filed against Salinas Berry Farms, a Driscoll-contract grower, involving sexual discrimination and violation of state overtime laws. A third federal class. action suit was filed against Reiter Farms, another Driscoll grower, over forcing pickers to work off the clock without pay.

• Workers won a neutrality agreement with Coastal Berry Co., the nation’s largest direct employer of strawberry workers. Under this agreement, the company pledged to remain neutral while pickers organize. These workers made great strides in creating a powerful pro-union majority at the ranch. This progress came despite two years of staunch anti-union campaigning before the neutrality agreement and even though agents for other growers have entered Coastal Berry fields to threaten workers and UFW organizers.

• The UFW, together with civic and religious leaders, filed suit in Santa Cruz Superior Court charging strawberry growers with illegally funding a industry "front group"– the Agricultural Workers Committee (AWC)(Also known as the Agricultural Workers Association (AWA)). This group claims "to be independent organizations of non-supervisory berry harvesters but are in fact controlled and financed by the growers," the lawsuit states.

A judge rejected a claim from the industry defendants that the UFW action was aimed at stopping AWA/AWC from exercising their free speech rights. (In early 1998, the same judge ruled the defendants’ claim was without merit and ordered AWC to pay $8,000 in attorney fees the UFW incurred while opposing the motion. He also soundly rejected a separate motion from the defendants to dismiss the UFW’s claims, thereby allowing the union suit to proceed.)

(For more information contact: Jocelyn Sherman, UFW, (562) 633-9679; Richard Greer, AFL-CIO, (202) 637-5279; Marc Grossman, UFW, (916) 441-0766)