Agricultural Personnel Management Program
University of California

5/5/00 -- UFW News Release

     Some 70 workers at a large Petaluma nursery marked "Cinco de
May"--the anniversary of Mexico's defeat of French troops in the 1862
Battle of Puebla--by voting overwhelmingly to be represented by the
Cesar Chavez-founded United Farm Workers. Employees at Vinifera Inc., at
4288 Bodega Hwy. in Petaluma, voted 35 to five for the UFW.

     Balloting supervised by the state Agricultural Labor Relations
Board ended at 12:30 p.m. on Friday at the Sonoma County company. It
came one day after the UFW won its first major foothold in California's
strawberry industry.

     The Vinifera vote is the UFW's 20th election victory since union
President Arturo Rodriguez kicked off a new organizing drive in 1994.
Since then, the UFW has also signed 24 new--or first-time--union
contracts with growers. UFW membership has grown to more than 27,000
today, from about 20,000 in 1994.

     Vinifera workers turned for help to the union's office in Santa
Rosa on March 1.  They complained about a host of grievances, including
speed-ups, no seniority or job security, favoritism on the job, few if
any benefits, lack of protection from pesticides and abuse by a labor
contractor.

     Vinifera produces and sells a variety of plant products, including
grapevine plants that are sold to the wine industry. It is a subsidary
of Agritope Inc. of Portland, Ore., a publicly-traded agricultural
biotechnology firm.

     The UFW won an election in Sonoma County at Balletto Farms, the
North Coast's largest vegetable grower, in 1998 and workers there are
now protected by a union contract. The UFW is presently negotiating with
Gallo of Sonoma, the county's largest wine grape producer. The union
also has contracts with three Napa County and one Mendocino County wine
grape companies.