Agricultural Personnel Management Program
University of California

9/1/00 News Report -- The Press Democrat, Santa Rosa

Six years after voting to join the United Farm Workers, vineyard workers at Gallo Sonoma agreed on a landmark contract that ends a bitter farm labor battle that attracted national attention.

In a joint statement, UFW President Arturo Rodriguez and Matthew Gallo, head of operations at Gallo Sonoma, announced that a contract was signed Thursday, ending years of legal maneuvering and heated negotiations between the farmworkers' union and E&J Gallo, the world's largest wine company.

It is the first contract between Gallo and the United Farm Workers since 1973.

On Thursday both sides took a positive stance and avoided past grievances in announcing the contract.

"This contract sets an example for others to follow a new relationship, based on mutual respect, with gains for everyone," Rodriguez said. "We have found common ground with Gallo. This new relationship will help improve the lives of workers, their families and the community in which they live."

 Matt Gallo, a third-generation member of the Gallo family, represented his family and the company in the negotiations.

"Both parties have been striving toward this agreement, and the negotiations were sometimes difficult," Gallo said. "But when both parties are sincere and both sides want a contract, the barriers come down one by one."

Rodriguez and Gallo, designated spokesmen for the contract agreement, were unavailable for comment beyond their prepared statement.

Highlights of the contract, according to Gallo and the UFW:

    * Average wage increases of 60 cents to $1.40 an hour.

    * Continuation of medical benefits, vacation and holiday pay and pension coverage for all direct-hire workers.

    * Job security and seniority protections.

    * Enhanced protection for workers employed by labor contractors.

    * A grievance and arbitration procedure.

Gallo Sonoma workers currently are paid about $8 to $12 an hour.

The contract was signed as the wine grape harvest in the North Coast gets under way. Gallo and other vineyard owners have started bringing in this year's grape crop.

It wasn't known Thursday how many of the estimated 450 people hired to work in Gallo Sonoma's 3,500 acres of Sonoma County vineyards would be covered by the contract.

The contract only includes workers at Gallo Sonoma and not the hundreds of other workers employed in the thousands of acres of Gallo vineyards elsewhere in California.

Gallo is one of three agriculture-related Sonoma County businesses where workers are represented by the UFW. The others are Balletto Farms in Santa Rosa and Vinifera Inc., a Petaluma grapevine nursery.

The UFW office in Santa Rosa also represents 350 workers at three wineries in the Napa Valley.

One of the hurdles in the negotiations was the UFW's insistence that even Gallo workers hired through farm labor contractors receive union benefits and protection. Gallo resisted.

It was unclear Thursday if those farmworkers will be covered by the contract.

The contract signing closes a chapter on the long struggle by Gallo Sonoma workers to win a contract. In a July 1994 election, workers at Gallo Sonoma's vineyards voted 80-21 to be members of the union founded by the late Cesar Chavez.

The election was tied up in court for years, but in 1998, with all legal avenues exhausted, Gallo began contract negotiations with the union. Farmworkers were represented in negotiations with Gallo by Dolores Huerta, the vice president of the UFW and a national figure in the labor movement.

Over the years there have been farmworker protests and rallies against Gallo. Two months ago, Rodriguez came to Santa Rosa to blast Gallo for purposefully stalling contract negotiations.

He charged that Gallo was stalling for time in the hope that its vineyard workers would give up in their efforts for a union contract.

In June, Rodriguez threatened a national boycott of Gallo wines if a contract wasn't completed soon.

Rodriguez said 40 of the 80 workers who voted for the union in 1994 no longer work at Gallo Sonoma, leaving the company for other jobs because of the pressure and stressful working conditions.

But even as the years went by, the Gallo Sonoma workers who continued with the company vowed they would continue fighting.

"I will never give up until we get the contract that we voted for," Gallo worker Antonio Meza said at a farmworker rally in June.

You can reach Press Democrat Staff Writer Tim Tesconi at 521-5289 or e-mail at ttesconi@pressdemocrat.com.