Agricultural Personnel Management Program
University of California

3/9/01 News Report -- San Frnacisco Chronicle

The United Farm Workers and the nation's biggest strawberry grower signed a contract yesterday covering 750 Ventura County workers that is the first major success in the union's campaign to organize California's $800 million strawberry industry.

The UFW, backed by the AFL-CIO, has made unionizing strawberry workers its top priority since 1996, but until yesterday had just one contract covering a handful of workers to show for it.

Coastal Berry, which claims an 11 percent share of the American strawberry market, gives the UFW a firm foothold in an industry that has historically been fiercely resistant to unionization.

The contract includes a 7 percent wage increase spread over three years and an immediate boost in the basic wage to $6.75 an hour, along with a piece rate formula that should raise the average wage to $8.25 to $10 an hour, UFW President Arturo Rodriguez said.

Coastal Berry's Chairman David Gladstone said the contract provides "benefits unheard of in this industry." It includes free health care and a dental plan -- portable to Mexico -- a seniority system, six paid holidays, a vacation plan and job guarantees.

"It gives the union a major stake in the strawberry industry," said Rodriguez, who has headed the UFW since the 1993 death of founder Cesar Chavez.

Coastal Berry, which is headquartered in Watsonville, was the scene of two fractious union elections in 1998 and 1999, both won on close votes by a local organization, the Coastal Farmworkers Committee, led by workers who were opponents of the UFW.

But in an unprecedented ruling, the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board certified the Farmworkers Committee as bargaining agent for Coastal Berry's Monterey-Santa Cruz County workers and UFW for those in Ventura County. "People thought we got a lemon, but we made lemonade," said UFW spokesman Marc Grossman.

Coastal Berry has also signed a contract with the Farmworkers Committee covering about 1,000 workers, Gladstone said. It is similar to UFW's but lacks provisions for seniority and a structured grievance procedure, he said.

(c)2001 San Francisco Chronicle