1:00 p.m. Wednesday, May 19, 1999
As strawberry pickers prepare to vote in a new election, 20 berry growers and groups settle UFW suits over illegally funding ‘worker committees’
Days before a new union election at the nation’s largest direct employer of strawberry pickers, the United Farm Workers is using a 1 pm, Wednesday news conference to announce that 20 major growers and industry groups have agreed to court judgements under which they pledge to stop financing or supporting "worker committees" trying to influence employees’ decisions on unionization. Growers who violate the judgements could face jail and fines.
Since 1996, leaders of a worker committee claiming to represent strawberry pickers denied charges it was a "grower front group." Since the UFW filed a lawsuit in September 1997, subpoenaed bank records revealed growers and industry organizations gave the Agricultural Workers Committee more than $56,000 (United Farm Workers vs. Dutra Farms (Case No. 133191)). That violated a state law forbidding employers from bankrolling committees that interfere with their workers’ right to organize.
Jose Guadalupe Fernandez, a key activist with the now-defunct Agricultural Workers Committee, is also president of the Coastal Berry Farmworkers Committee (CBFC). CBFW was formed just before a July 23 election won by the committee and invalidated by the Agricultural Labor Relations Board on May 5. The UFW charges CBFW is a "sham union" controlled by anti-union foremen and supervisors who ordered a July 1 riot in Coastal Berry Co. fields near Watsonville that injured three pro-UFW pickers and two peace officers.
Standing besides evidence the industry financed the old worker committee, UFW President Arturo Rodriguez will warn that growers who violate court judgements by backing the current CBFW could go to jail or pay fines if found in contempt of court. Among evidence displayed at the news conference will be blown-up cancelled checks from growers and industry groups, a blown-up photo of CBFC’s Fernandez leading a 1996 Agricultural Workers Committee march and minutes from a meeting of the Western Growers Association board of directors at which growers were urged to contribute to the worker committee. The UFW has filed a petition for a new election at Coastal Berry.
Who: UFW President Arturo Rodriguez, union attorneys and strawberry workers.
What: Announcing 20 berry growers and groups have agreed to court judgements promising not to finance "worker committees" trying to influence pickers’ decisions on unionization–days before workers vote in a new election.
When: 1 pm, Wednesday, May 19, 1999.
Where: UFW Office, 18 West Lake St. (Cross street: Main), Suite L Watsonville.
CONSENT JUDGEMENT AGAINST DEFENDANT WESTERN GROWERS ASSOCIATION*
*
Pursuant to the Stipulation of the parties.
IT IS ORDERED, ADJUDGED AND DECREED as follows:
Defendant Western Growers Association and its officers, agents, successors, assigns, subsidiary companies and related entities, and those persons acting in active concert or participation with them, ARE HEREBY ENJOYED and RESTRAINED from violating Labor Code ‘ 1155.4 by paying, lending or delivering any money or other thing of value to any of the following, or by acting in the interest of an agricultural employer to pay, lend or deliver any money or other thing of value to any of the following:
(a) Any representative of any of his agricultural employees.
(b) Any agricultural labor organization, or any officer or employee thereof, which represents, seeks to represent, or would admit to membership, any of the agricultural employees of such employer.
(c) Any employee or group or committee of employees of such employer in excess of their normal compensation for the purpose of causing such employee or group or committee directly or indirectly to influence any other employees in the exercise of the right to organize and bargain collectively through representation of their own choosing.
(d) Any officer or employer of an agricultural labor organization with intent to influence him in respect to any of his actions, decisions, or duties as a representative of agricultural employees or as such officer or employee of such labor organization.
For purposes of this Consent Judgement, a group or committee of employees shall not be limited to a group or committee of employees of a single employer.
Dated: APR 20 1999
HONORABLE SAMUEL L. STEVENS
JUDGE OF THE SUPERIOR COURT
[County of Santa Cruz]
_________________
* Similar to those agreed to by other industry defendants in United Farm Workers vs. Dutra Farms (Case No. 133191).
EXCERPTS FROM WESTERN GROWERS ASSOCIATION BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING, JANUARY 30, 1997
(Plaintiff’s Exhibit No. 156)
Pro Workers Committee*
Doug Kerr [Western Growers Assn. general counsel] introduced Sergio Soto who has been instrumental in organizing the Pro Workers Committee in the Watsonville area. The Pro Workers Committee made an impressive showing in the Salinas area last year with a Pro Workers march of approximately 5,000 to 7,000 people participating. Mr. Soto stated that his committee is the actual voice for strawberry workers. They are in the process of forming an organization called the Agricultural Workers of America (AGWA).
The AGWA hopes to educate the workers and the public about the rights of workers. This organization is not anti-union, just pro-worker. AGWA would like to begin a newsletter to advise workers of their rights to not only select a union, but their right to not be represented by a union. Mr. Soto stated that his organization needs money to get the word out. He handed out contact information.
It was later suggested that perhaps employers should consider a $10 per employee donation to the AGWA [emphasis added].
[emphasis added].
____________________________________________________________________________
* Predecessor organization of Agricultural Workers of America and Agricultural Workers Committee
United Farm Workers of America, et al. v. Dutra Farms, et al.
(Santa Cruz Superior Court No. 133191)
Defendants=Contributions
|
Defendant |
Contribution Amount |
|
Dutra Farms |
$1,163.69 |
|
Well Pict |
$1,000.00 |
|
T.T. Miyasaka |
$214.94 |
|
Watsonville Berry Cooler |
$1,000.00 |
|
New West Fruit Co. |
$10,000.00 |
|
Clint Miller |
$500.00 |
|
Del Llano Farms |
$2,310.00 |
|
Uyematsu Farms |
$1,000.00 |
|
Pajaro Berry Farms |
$2,000.00 |
|
Aptos Berry Farms |
$750.00 |
|
Reiter Berry Farms |
$750.00 |
|
Salinas Berry Farms |
$6000.48 |
|
Windward Farms |
$1,200.00 |
|
GBS Farming |
$1,860.00 |
|
Farmhill, Inc. |
$1,360.00 |
|
J & D Farms; Gary Jertberg Strawberries; |
$7,360.00 |
|
Gary Jertberg |
|
|
Garroute Farms |
$1,500.00 |
|
Premier Growers Association |
$10,000.00 |
|
V & L Farms |
$5,000.00 |
|
Western Growers Association |
$1,300.00 |
|
Total: $56,269.11 |