BY JIM ALTENBERG
SAN FRANCISCO - A new attack by California's giant strawberry growers against the United Farm Workers (UFW) opened July 16 when an antiunion outfit known as the "Coastal Berry Workers Committee" filed petitions with the state Agricultural Labor Relations Board (ALRB) for a representation election at Coastal Berry Co. in Watsonville, California. Coastal is California's largest strawberry producer.

UFW officials have denounced the election as a sham. The aim of "a grower group calling itself a union," said UFW president Arturo Rodríguez, is "to block a real union for the workers." Rodríguez called on the ALRB to dismiss the petition, which would require that Coastal workers vote July 23 to allow the fake union as their bargaining agent. A similar anti-UFW petition was dismissed last February at Scheid Vineyards in nearby Monterey County. Union spokesperson Joslyn Sherman told the Militant in a telephone interview that workers left the fields July 20. They have held a vigil at the ALRB office in Salinas for two days, drawing crowds as large as 200. Union protests at the state capitol have been similar sized, and are planned to run for a week. The UFW has not requested to be on the ballot, Sherman said, explaining that an environment of intimidation made any fair vote impossible.

On July 1 antiunion thugs invaded the Silliman Ranch and attacked farm workers as they prepared to go to work. They beat workers and threw strawberry boxes everywhere, stopping them from working. Three workers were injured. One of the leaders of the attack, Jose Guadalupe Fernández, filed the petition for the election. Fernández was later arrested for attacking Santa Cruz county cops who came to the ranch.

Union officials charged that Coastal foremen and supervisors collected signatures for the sham union by threatening berry pickers if they did not sign. The company held a July 14 meeting on the Silliman Ranch to back the petition. Foremen extended lunch hours and watched workers to make sure everyone signed. Workers were told that the UFW wanted to throw all the undocumented workers off of the ranch, that the UFW would steal their money, and that they "knew what would happen" if they did not sign.

The UFW has also presented evidence of the antiunion group's financial ties to the growers. A UFW lawsuit against the Agricultural Workers Committee has turned up checks issued to the group from the Western Growers Association and farms making up the Driscoll strawberry distributor.

Jim Altenberg is a member of the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers.  
 
 
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