USA:
Bosses' front beats strawberry workers — for now

Bosses are always preaching of the evils of unions, telling workers that 
unions are out of date, oppressive, crooked, an obstacle to job growth. 
Workers joining together in a union to protect their interests is 
denigrated as unnecessary or even downright sinister. But let the bosses' 
profits be threatened — by pressure for higher wages or improved safety 
measures say — then watch the bosses unite to protect their 
interests!

In the US, California strawberry workers trying to join the union of their 
choice instead of the boss's company union have been beaten — for now — 
by a combined bosses' front, dirty tactics and company union goons.

The United Farm Workers of America (UFW), which has been organising the 
seasonal farm workers of the south-west for 30 years, lost a union 
accreditation election for the 1,300 workers at Coastal Berry Co, the 
country's largest strawberry grower, by 90 votes.

The election, among farmworkers in Watsonville, Salinas and Oxnard, 
California, was a textbook of union-busting tactics.

The $600 million strawberry industry has a history of united opposition to 
the UFW.

In 1997, it helped bankroll a company front, the so-called Agricultural 
Workers of America (AGWA), to challenge the UFW.

At Coastal Berry, they established a de facto company union, the Coastal 
Berry of California Farm Workers' Committee, the UFW's opposition in the 
election.

The petition for the Committee to represent Coastal Berry workers was filed 
with the Agricultural Labour Relations Board (ALRB).

In Oxnard, the names of 100 workers who had signed UFW pledge cards were 
put on a leaflet saying, "We, the growers in Oxnard, have been watching for 
months. We know who is supporting the UFW."

The harassment of Salinas and Watsonville workers who labour in the heart 
of the strawberry industry was even more intense. Committee thugs beat up 
workers who didn't support them in 1998. Memories of that violent 
experience filled the air during the election.

The staff of the ALRB which ran the election were appointed by the regime 
of the former Governor, pro-agribusiness Republican Pete Wilson.

Their insistence that workers write their name on the outside of the 
envelopes that held their ballot was probably the most intimidating factor 
of all, because Committee representatives kept telling workers, "We will 
know who you are" if you vote for the UFW.

Coastal Berry management, understandably, illegally allowed Committee 
agents to campaign with workers in the fields during the voting — while 
the UFW was denied access.

The company also used its own foremen in the anti-UFW fight. These foremen, 
who hire, fire and make work assignments (rather like the notorious "bull" 
system once prevalent on the Australian waterfront), were a powerful factor 
in influencing the outcome.

To discourage workers from voting, beefy security guards, hired just for 
the election, stood at the entrance to the field leading to the voting 
area. In Oxnard, workers had to walk up to two miles into the field to 
reach the voting booth. ALRB representatives refused to let volunteers 
drive workers to the polls.

In other centres, workers would arrive at the voting site to find that the 
booth had been moved to another location.

The UFW has already helped berry workers win more than $1 million from 
strawberry growers for violations of the law — from sex discrimination 
against women workers to making pickers work "off the clock" without pay 
before and after work.

Asked whether the union would stick around and continue to fight for 
changes at Coastal Berry (including to increase wages, improve conditions 
and remove the power of the foremen), Arturo Rodriguez, UFW president, said 
confidently: "We've been around for 30 years and we're not going anywhere."

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Adapted from an article by Evelina Alarcon in People's Weekly 
World