Agricultural Personnel Management Program
University of California

10/5/00 News Report -- Associated Press

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) -- In a decision considered a victory by the United Farm Workers, a state appeals court on Wednesday rejected arguments by two strawberry growers that they should have been allowed to provide money to so-called worker committees that rivaled the UFW.

The ruling by the 6th Circuit Court of Appeal affirms a lower court decision that found Dutra Farms and Clint Miller Farms had violated a state labor code barring agricultural employers from providing money to worker committees.

In their appeal, the two growers had tried to argue that there was a loophole in the statute that allowed them to give money to a committee as long as the committee was composed of employees other than their own, according to San Francisco attorney Scott Kronland, who represented the UFW.

"The Court of Appeal rejected all their arguments. It found they acted illegally by funding the committee," he said. "It means that in future efforts to organize workers, employers can't fund these phony worker committees."

Calls placed late Wednesday to the growers' attorneys were not immediately returned.

The case stems from a lawsuit brought against about two dozen strawberry growers by the UFW, which questioned the relationship between strawberry growers and worker committees, arguing the committees lied when they claimed to be independent of their employers.

Last year, about 20 of the growers agreed to stop funding the committees as part of a settlement that included payment of attorneys' fees to the UFW. Most of the terms remained confidential.