The pickets gave out 1,000 leaflets and small boxes of raisins, along with some recipe booklets, to promote raisins and inform people about their plight. A good number of passersby stopped and asked what they could do to help.

The action was organized by the California Raisin Reform Association (CRRA), formed by farmers last December after a bumper crop led the packing companies to cut the price paid to growers. Most of the growers have already delivered the raisins to the packers, who are selling them. Some packing companies made advances to growers of between $325 to $360 per ton.

The leaflet handed out by the farmers described the CRRA, how raisins are made, and how the packers are allowed to make money while farmers face bankruptcy and the loss of their farms.

"The packers want to pay growers only $700 to $800 on 53 percent of their delivered raisin crop. This is equivalent to $371 to $441 per ton on 100 percent of their crop, which as you can see, results in a huge loss to growers," read the leaflet.

Explaining that expenses "generally range anywhere from $600 to $700 per ton," the leaflet emphasized that "without a price of at least $750 per ton, growers cannot break-even!"  
 
'Where is our money?'
Growers held signs reading, "Packers sold our raisins, where is our money?" "Buy California raisins," and "Can you live on 53 percent [of your wage]?"

The hearing was closed to the public and to farmers. The Raisin Bargaining Association, which represents growers, was allowed one representative, its president, its chief executive officer, and a lawyer, while the 16 packinghouses involved in the dispute each had a representative and a lawyer. On May 3, after three days of hearings, the arbitrators set the field price for last year's raisins at $877. 50. This is down from the $1,100 per ton that the Raisin Bargaining Association, which represents growers, was asking for. In 1999 farmers received $1,425 per ton of raisins. In each of the previous three years the price exceeded $1,200 per ton.

Remarking on the protest, Mike Jerkovich, the president of the CRRA, said, "This is the best thing that we could have done. It was very educational for me and for the people in San Francisco. I didn't think it would turn out as good. Next time there will be more farmers."

"The main goal of this organization," explained Rick Logoluso, a third-generation grower, "is to educate and inform the growers themselves about the industry developments and to make the public more aware of what raisins are, how they're produced, and why we're not getting paid. A lot is at stake in this struggle. We could lose our heritage, the property we were on since the early 1940s," he said.  
 
A 'man-made crisis'
"Of the raisin farmers about 30 percent are Sikh," said Navdep Sran, who owns 650 acres of land. This year, as part of a diversion program to reduce the size of next year's crop, he pruned 60 acres of his vineyard so they won't produce fruits this season. "This crisis is a man-made crisis," he said, "because it did not happen overnight, they knew what was going on."

Kuldip Kaleka, who has been cultivating raisins since 1975, said , "If things continue like this a lot of growers will be out of business."

He and the four other farm workers on the bus, all of whom are originally from Mexico, have been out of work for three months.

Rollande Girard is a member of the United Food and Commercial Workers union in Selma, California. Ned Measel, a meat packer in Fresno, contributed to the article.  
 
 
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