Press Release
Senator Hilda L. Solis: 24th Senate District: State Capitol Building, Room # 4039, Sacramento, CA, 95814
Bill Wong (916) 445-1418
No.:25co 7/24/98
Press Release
Labor Committee Chairs To Convene Oversight Hearing On ALRB Election Procedures Tied To Anti-Union Violence
Oversight Hearing Scheduled For 11 a.m., State Capitol, Room 2040 On July 28, 1998
Sacramento CA – Los Angeles Democratic State Senator Hilda L. Solis, the Chair of the Senate Industrial Relations Committee and Assemblymember Dick Floyd, Chair of the Assembly Labor Committee will convene an oversight hearing on the Agricultural Labor Relations Board’s decision to proceed with a union election at Coastal Berry Farms despite documented violence against UFW supporters and allegations of a corporate dominated counter-UFW election petition drive.
Senator Solis scheduled a news conference on July 22, 1998 after hearing allegations that Coastal Berry Co. prevented workers from responding to questions by ALRB investigators related to the UFW=s attempt to halt the tainted election. UFW has established a "prima facie" case that Coastal Berry Farm company foremen and supervisors were behind July 1 violence that injured pro-UFW berry pickers and police officers, and that they broke the law by pressuring workers to sign election petitions on behalf of a "company union." The UFW contends that the signatures calling for the election were collected after the supervisors and foremen who allegedly organized the violence went field to field forcing pickers to sign or face job termination.
"I am deeply disturbed that the ALRB has chosen to go forward with the election despite a responsibility to delay or halt it in light of the documented violence and allegations of coercion. The Legislature needs to carefully scrutinize the Board’s legal justification for proceeding with the election," stated Senator Hilda L. Solis.
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