UFW: Sham Election Won’t Stop Strawberry Workers From Organizing a Union to Improve Their Lives. Workers want a real voice for better working and living conditions, not violence and pressure tactics

July 23, 1998, 9 pm

California=s 20,000 strawberry workers will continue organizing with the United Farm Workers to win a real voice to improve working and living conditions, the union said Thursday following balloting in an election marred by violence and illegal pressure tactics.  

The election at Coastal Berry, the largest employer of strawberry workers, was held by the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board over the objections of workers, the UFW and community leaders concerned that the group on the ballot, the Coastal Berry Farm Workers Committee, was illegally controlled by the company and the strawberry industry.

 When workers began joining together in a union with the UFW, we all knew there was a rich, powerful industry that would do everything it could to stop us,= Rodriguez said. >Workers want a real voice for better working and living conditions, not violence and pressure tactics. The organizing continues.=

The union presented the ALRB with worker affidavits and other detailed evidence showing that foremen coerced workers into signing petitions that allowed the group to get on the ballot. The union also presented proof that the group was illegally dominated by foremen, and that foremen directed violence against workers who support the UFW.

The board rejected the appeals, saying it feared more violence if it did not allow the so-called union election to proceed. By holding an election tainted by fear and violence, the ALRB has shown that cannot protect workers= most basic rights. Five individuals who were injured during the melee of July 1st have filed a civil lawsuit against Coastal Berry and several of the company=s supervisors and the foreman who were involved in orchestrating the violence.

After meeting with worker organizing committees, the UFW decided to stay off the ballot. AWe refused to add legitimacy to this farce,@ UFW President Arturo Rodriguez said. AIt should never have been allowed.@. The vote count for the election was 523 for the Coastal Berry Farm Worker Committee, 410 for No Union, with 39 challanged ballots, for a total of 972 cast votes.

The union will work to overturn the election, and it will continue to support the UFW worker leadership and their organizing efforts at Coastal and other strawberry companies.