11 a.m. Thurs. December 17, in Oakland
Clergy report on Watsonville-area strawberry worker abuses, join UFW’s Dolores Huerta in launching drive among Bay Area congregations
United Farm Workers co-founder Dolores Huerta and strawberry workers will join more than a dozen Bay Area religious leaders at a Thursday news conference where they will report findings from a recent fact-finding visit with central coast berry pickers. Then they will announce formation of "A Just Harvest," a new interfaith clergy group that is already rallying support for worker organizing efforts among local congregations.
Members of A Just Harvest delegation who spent the day with berry pickers on Oct. 7 will detail continuing abuses among the 20,000 workers who labor in California strawberry fields, 12,000 of them in the nearby Pajaro and Salinas Valleys. Among the grievances clergy members witnessed or discussed with workers are cramped and miserable housing conditions, low wages, failure to receive legally-required overtime pay, lack of job security and health care, and firings and intimidation for supporting the UFW at the hands of grower foremen and supervisors.
At churches and temples across the Bay Area, A Just Harvest is collecting thousands of signatures urging strawberry producers such as the giant Driscoll corporation to remain neutral while pickers organize with the UFW without threats or reprisals.
Who: UFW co-founder Dolores Huerta, strawberry workers, a dozen Bay Area religious leaders.
What: Issuing a report from an Oct. 7 fact-finding delegation that spent the day with Watsonville-area strawberry workers; announcing creation of of "A Just Harvest," a new interfaith clergy group to support berry worker organizing efforts.
When: 11 a.m., Thursday, Dec. 17, 1998.
Where: St. Elizabeth Church, 1500 – 34th Ave. (at East 14th St.) in Oakland.
Among those at the news conference will be Rabbi Michael Lerner of Beyt Tikkun congregation in San Francisco, Rosa Zubizaretta of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship in Oakland, Rev. Declan Deane of St. Monica’s Catholic Church in Moraga, Rev. Steve Harms of Peace Lutheran Church in Danville and Rev. John Howard of Sojourner Truth Presbyterian Church in Richmond. They and others will also participate a brief and symbolic interfaith ritual to help kick off A Just Harvest.
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