For Release: January 26, 1998
Santa Cruz judge hands UFW two victories against growers and industry ‘front groups’
A Santa Cruz Superior Court judge ruled today that a lawsuit filed by the United Farm Workers alleging that two strawberry growers have unlawfully financed grower "front groups" can move forward. Judge Samuel Stevens also found that an already-rejected motion by defendants to strike the UFW legal action was "frivolous" and awarded the union $8,000 in attorney fees.
The UFW together with civic and religious leaders filed suit last August charging the growers with illegally funding the Agricultural Workers Committee (AWC) and the Agricultural Workers Association (AWA). The two strawberry growers named as defendants are Dutra Farms and Miguel Ramos Farms. The suit was filed on the UFW’s behalf by Altshuler, Berzon, Nussbaum, Berzon & Rubin, a major San Francisco-based labor law firm.
Since the UFW strawberry workers organizing drive began in 1996, groups such as AWA and AWC have purported "to be independent organizations of non-supervisory berry harvesters but are in fact controlled and financed by the growers," the lawsuit states. "The defendants’ purpose in misrepresenting and concealing the nature of these organizations has been to mislead the public."
On Dec. 10, Judge Stevens rejected a claim from the defendants that the UFW action was a SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation) suit aimed at stopping AWA and AWC from exercising their free speech rights.
This morning Judge Stevens issued two new rulings:
• He found the defendants’ SLAPP motion from last December was frivolous–or completely 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. The defendants unsuccessfully argued that the UFW’s case should be pursued with the state Agricultural Labor Relations Board and not through a civil suit in Superior Court.
"The United Farm Workers is pleased to be in a position to establish what we have claimed all along–that strawberry growers have been unlawfully financing the AWC and AWA, and that the employers have not been straight with the public about their connection to these groups," says UFW General Counsel Marcos Camacho.
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