Vol. 80/No. 24 June 20, 2016

Farmworker convention discusses fights to build union

BY LAURA GARZA

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. — Several hundred farmworkers and supporters attended the United Farm Workers’ convention here May 19-22. Delegates heard reports on recent fights and organizing victories in the fields.

A highlight was the arrival of a busload of workers from McFarland, where 400 blueberry pickers had just won a vote to be represented by the UFW after a three-day strike against Klein Management over a pay cut and the firing of workers who objected. “We won more than we lost in those three days,” one of the pickers told the convention.

UFW President Arturo Rodriguez summarized some of the gains made by the union over the last four years, including four new UFW contracts covering some 1,500 workers, mostly in tomatoes.

“It’s a good time to take the opportunity to strike,” said UFW Vice President Armando Elenes, noting the growers’ need for more workers given the reduction in immigration in recent years. He said some modest wages hikes were won in 2015 in strikes by 400 fig workers at Stellar Distributing and 200 workers at Specialty Crop, both in Madera.

“When we have the union we have more respect,” said Oscar Gonzales, who works at Dole, one of the region’s largest strawberry producers. “We can demand fresh water, we are given goggles if it’s windy. We can stop if the wind gets to be over 35 mph, or if it’s raining.” Gonzales, who has worked there for two years, said the conditions are different at the nonunion farm where his wife, Veronica Villana, harvests blackberries.

Gonzales said contractors make the workers do three days “training” without getting paid, and they work when it’s raining. Villana showed this reporter photos of the fields flooded almost to the top of her knee-high boots.

Rose Ledezma, 21, has worked for two years in the blueberry harvest and came with her aunt, a longtime UFW supporter. They both had recently been fired by a supervisor who said they weren’t going fast enough. Ledezma found work at another farm and said, “They want us to work the whole 10 hours a day in the heat.” The right to breaks, water and shade is one of the reasons she cited for needing the union.

The union won legislation in 2005 mandating growers provide protections from heat stroke. But without a union it’s hard to force the companies to comply. The UFW estimates heat-related illness caused the deaths of 28 farmworkers between 2005 and 2011.

The union also projected mobilizing workers to go to Sacramento in June to push for stronger overtime regulations. California law only requires farmworkers get paid overtime after 10 hours a day, or 60 hours a week.

The convention honored veterans of earlier struggles, including of the historic 1966 march from Delano to Sacramento demanding union rights for farmworkers.

A number of Democratic Party politicians also addressed the gathering, many seeking support for election, including California Gov. Jerry Brown, former President William Clinton campaigning for Hillary Clinton, and Emilio Huerta, a candidate for Congress and son of UFW leader Dolores Huerta.