Rural Laws: January, 2002 - Number #4

UFW. The UFW dealt with mushroom, nursery and furniture workers in Fall 2001. The UFW has been trying to negotiate an agreement with the Ventura, California plant of mushroom grower Pictsweet since January 2000. According to the UFW, Pictsweet wants "voluntary union membership," that is, workers would not have to join the UFW to work at Pictsweet.

On January 10, 2002, an ALRB administrative law judge ruled that Pictsweet had unlawfully fired a UFW supporter who got into an argument with a supervisor, and ordered him reinstated with back pay.

Pictsweet in October 2001 announced that it was closing its 314-employee Salem, Oregon plant, which was the target of boycotting sponsored by Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noreste (PCUN). Pictsweet, owned by Tennessee-based United Foods, cited cheaper imports from Canada.

The UFW's L.E. Cooke nursery contract expired December 2, 2001, and the UFW staged a protest to get Cooke to agree to use only seniority to lay off and rehire seasonal workers. Cooke says that it must evaluate workers, and keep those who "can do the work." Cooke usually hires 200 seasonal workers in December-January, and has 50 year-round employees; the UFW-Cooke contract provides full benefits only to year-round employees. Cooke workers voted for UFW representation in 1997; the UFW is negotiating for its third contract with Cooke.

Colorado made March 31 Cesar Chavez Day in 2001, but not a paid holiday for state employees. Chavez was born on March 31, 1927, near Yuma, Arizona, and died in 1993.

The UFW signed its first nonfarm contract with furniture maker Guy Chaddock & Co in Bakersfield on August 13, 2001; the UFW won the ALRB-supervised election 191 to 99 in November 2000. According to the UFW, the two-year contract included a 13 percent wage increase over two years, six paid holidays, a new medical benefits package and a grievance and arbitration system.

In October 2001, it was reported that several Chaddock workers petitioned the ALRB for a vote to determine if the union security clause should be deleted from the contract-- the union security clause requires all workers to become and remain UFW members. Several unfair labor practice charges are pending against Chaddock, which will delay a vote on whether to retain the union security clause.

ALRB-Coastal. In 1997, the UFW targeted the 1,500-employee strawberry grower Gargiulo, later Coastal Berry. Coastal Berry promised to be neutral in the organizing campaign, which led to several fights between pro- and anti-UFW workers before the election, with the anti-UFW workers charging that Coastal's new management favored the UFW.

On July 1, 1998, some of the anti-UFW workers engaged in a protest against workers they thought were UFW sympathizers that turned violent, with protestors preventing pro-UFW workers from picking, and destroying some picked fruit. Coastal initially agreed to rehire all of the protesting workers, but after reviewing the incident, refused to rehire 12-- 11 of those not rehired filed charges with the ALRB, arguing they were engaged in protected concerted activity and thus deserved reinstatement.

In September 1999, an Administrative Law Judge ruled that all of the workers' activities were protected, and ordered 10 of the 11 reinstated. In Coastal Berry Company 26 ALRB 3 (2000), the ALRB agreed that the workers' activities were protected, but ordered only eight of the 11 anti-UFW workers reinstated with back pay.

The ALRB decision was appealed, and a 6th Court of Appeals decision in November 2001 sent the case back to the ALRB, with instructions to use a different standard for determining if the protesting workers' conduct was protected. The Court of Appeals decision noted that concerted activity is protected if it meets four conditions: (1) there must be a work-related complaint or grievance; (2) a specific remedy or result must be sought through protected activities; (3) the concerted activity must further some group interest; and (4) the activity should not be unlawful or otherwise improper (for example, violent, in breach of contract or indefensibly disloyal).

The Court of Appeals said that protesting workers may lose their protected concerted activity status if they "coerce or intimidate employees" who are exercising their rights to, for instance, continue working. Workers may engage in misconduct that prevents their rehire if their misconduct "reasonably tends to coerce or intimidate" other workers.

CLA-Dairy. Hank Van Heyningen, president of Christian Labor Association Local 17 in Chino, California, pleaded guilty on October 23, 2001 to one federal count of extortion by use of wrongful fear of economic loss. Van Heyningen admitted that he required workers sent to dairies to fill full-time jobs with regular daylight hours to pay him $800 to $1,500.

Krug. The 800-acre Charles Krug Winery, the oldest winery in Napa Valley (1861), is operated by Peter Mondavi and his two sons, Peter Jr. and Marc, and produces the Charles Krug, C.K. Mondavi and other labels. (www.charleskrug.com/) Krug's contract with the Modesto-based United Food and Commercial Workers Local 186D, Winery, Distillery & Allied Workers, expired March 31, 2001. Krug demanded that the union agree not to strike during the grape crush in August-September 2001. When the union refused, Krug on July 3, 2001 locked out its 45 UFCW-represented employees and hired temporary replacement workers (www.ufcw.org).

During negotiations before the lock out, Krug wanted to reclassify workers, raising wages for some workers and lowering them for others, and to add criteria other than seniority in evaluations. On August 15, 2001, the workers-- many of whom are related to each other--rejected Krug's offer- some rackers and blenders would have seen their pay drop to $12 an hour from $14.64. Krug countered that it planned to raise the wages of workers filtering wine and filling tanks and barrels to $18.50 from $15.29.

The UFCW charged that Krug did not bargain in good faith when it locked out its workers, but the UFCW's charges were dismissed by the National Labor Relations Board. The UFCW has 1.4 million US members. Local 186D represents 1,700 winery and distillery workers at 11 wineries and distillers in Northern California, including Sebastiani in Sonoma and E.&J. Gallo, Bronco, Canandaigua and other facilities in the Central Valley.

The UFCW once had 500 members in Napa, but Krug was the last Napa winery with a UFCW contract. There were once seven Napa growers and wineries with contracts with farm workers, and three remain in 2001- the UFCW represents farm workers at Hess Collection Winery and the UFW represents farm workers at Krug, St. Supery and Vista Vineyard Management.

Christian Brothers signed a UFW contract in 1967. In 1975-77, farm workers at Charles Krug, Beringer, Napa Valley Vineyards, St. Regis and Trefethen voted for UFW representation. Christian Brothers' wine-making operation left the county in 1989, but the contract lives on, covering 25 workers at Vista Vineyard Management. The UFW was decertified at Beringer in 1979, at St. Regis in 1985, and at Trefethen in 1989. Napa Valley Vineyards was reorganized in the early 1980s, and today the acreage is controlled by Andy Beckstoffer. St. Supery, which has a UFW contract, began growing grapes in Pope Valley and Rutherford in 1983.

AFL-CIO. The AFL-CIO and its 66 affiliated unions met in December 2001 in Las Vegas to reelect John Sweeney as president. The AFL-CIO named 14 cities as "models for the labor movement around the country," citing Los Angeles for the ability of Miguel Contreras, secretary-treasurer of the Los Angeles Labor Federation, to craft a single message that could unify all unionized workers. For example, a growing economy needs to pull all segments of the population along, from janitors and bus drivers to doctors and actors.

James P. Hoffa was re-elected president of the 1.4 million-member Teamsters union, defeating challenger Tom Leedham 66 to 34 percent in a November 2001 election. About one-third of the Teamsters eligible to vote sent in mail ballots. The largest Teamsters contract covers 210,000 workers employed by United Parcel Service.

In November 2001, a federal appeals court upheld a National Labor Relations Board decision that non-union workers may take colleagues with them to disciplinary hearings. In union workplaces, employees have had the right since 1975 to bring union stewards or other representatives with them to disciplinary meetings.

Maria Machuca, "Workers at Bakersfield, Calif.-Area Furniture Maker Want Union Clause Cut," Bakersfield Californian, October 10, 2001.