Manténgame al Tanto

Top U.S. rabbi presents check in Oxnard, uses D.C. connections to promote Pictsweet mushroom boycott

2 p.m. Friday, July 13, at UFW’s Oxnard office.
Top U.S. rabbi presents check in Oxnard, uses D.C. connections to promote Pictsweet mushroom boycott
 
    
Rabbi Richard Levy, past-president of the 1,700-member Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR), uses a Friday afternoon visit to the United Farm Workers’ Oxnard office to present a $3,100 check to the union and detail important new support from CCAR rabbis for the UFW’s boycott of Pictsweet Mushroom Farms products.
 
Levy will announce that he and other leaders from CCAR plan to try and arrange meetings between Pictsweet workers and top congressional leaders, including U.S. Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), new chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Pictsweet has more than $13 million per year in contracts to sell its products to military bases throughout the U.S.
 
The Los Angeles-based Levy recently toured a Northern California facility operated by Monterey Mushroom, which has union contracts with the UFW. There he met with Pictsweet workers from Ventura who contrasted pay, conditions and treatment at their non-union plant with the unionized company.
 
Rabbi Levy also met with fired Pictsweet worker Fidel Andrade. On July 5, the UFW filed an unfair labor practice charge with the state Agricultural Labor Relations Board (ALRB) alleging Andrade was unlawfully fired on May 31 after being "set up" by the company. On May 27, Andrade was cornered alone in a room with a foreman who deliberately shook his finger in the face of the UFW activist. Andrade pushed the finger aside, which Pictsweet says was a violation of its "zero tolerance" policy against threats and violence.

On June 26, the ALRB issued a detailed nine-count complaint accusing Pictsweet of systematically violating a host of state labor laws in its bid to avoid negotiating a union contract with the UFW.
 

Who:              Rabbi Richard Levy, past-president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis 
                      and Pictsweet workers.
 
What:             Presenting a $3,100 check and announcing efforts to expand the boycott of Pictsweet
                       mushrooms.
 
When:            2 p.m. on Friday, July 13, 2001.
 
Where:          UFW’s Oxnard office, 920 So. "A" St., Oxnard.
 

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