Agricultural Personnel Management Program
University of California

7/20/99 News Report -- Tallahassee Democrat

"It means a lot," said Diane Starke, a member of the United Farm Workers of America negotiating committee that worked out the 18-month labor agreement. "A lot of those employees are seeing raises for the first time in years, and they're just overwhelmed."

 The agreement is also significant in that it makes Quincy Farm's 430 pickers and packers the only farm workers in Florida to be covered by a union contract. The contract is still more unusual because it promises profit sharing, a rare provision in agriculture, where many workers barely earn the minimum wage. There are an estimated 300,000 farm workers in Florida.

 Starke and Liza Dilworth, another UFW activist at the giant plant near Gretna, said employees were afraid of losing their jobs during the organizing drive at Gadsden County's largest employer. They said improvements in safety conditions in the chilly, damp growing barns were as important as the pay hike from $5.25 to $5.75 an hour and pension improvements for the plant's 430 employees.

 "I never thought I'd see this day," said Lizzie Leath, a 12-year employee at the packing plant. "We need the extra money.

 "The hardest part was getting the employees to cooperate with us, to go to the meetings and understand that the man was going to sign a contract," she said. "Lots of them were afraid they were going to lose their jobs."

 Quincy Farms chief executive officer Dennis Zensen joined UFW president Arturo Rodriguez in signing the contract at a news conference, backed by mushroom pickers and packagers who held the union's red flag aloft. Afterward, participants signed one of the flags around its black eagle emblem and broke out the champagne -- which Rodriguez was careful to note came from a union vineyard.

 "Having a contract is the difference between night and day," said Frank Curiel, state director of organizing for the union, who wore a UFW button inscribed Con Union se Vive Mejor -- "With the Union, a Better Life." He said about half of the pickers and mushroom packers are Hispanic and the other half are black.

 "This will be the best place in Florida for a farm worker to work -- it's the difference between having a job all year-round, inside, with their children in school here," he said. "They can own their homes -- meager homes, but at least they're not doing migratory work. The impact is bigger than the money because it creates the job security."

 Zensen said he contacted Rodriguez last September and "agreed in principle" that it was time to end the labor troubles that began with the arrest of 86 mushroom workers during a disruptive lunch-hour picket in 1996.

 A boycott and class-action lawsuit grew out of the continuing standoff, but Zensen and Rodriguez said both of those actions were ended by the contract signing.

 "Arturo and I just decided it was time to see if we couldn't resolve the ongoing conflict," said Zensen. "This is good for the company and the United Farm Workers members, and the customers, because it brings an element of stability and productivity that we've never had before."

 Quincy Farms produces 25 million pounds of white button mushrooms a year and 500,000 pounds of giant portobellos.

 Rodriguez said the new pact allows Quincy Farms employees to get "past service credit" in the company pension plan for up to 15 years. He said there will also be a profit-sharing plan developed for all employees, including administrative workers.

 "This shows what people can accomplish when they work together," said Florida AFL-CIO president Marilyn Lenard. "It's going to help improve the profits of the company, the condition of the workers and also make an improvement in this community."

 Juana Alas, a 13-year employee of the plant, said through an interpreter that she supported the UFW "because they're seeking a better future for our children.

 "People need a better salary and insurance," she said. "Before this, we didn't have anything."

 Starke said she and Dilworth "give credit to God" for the union contract.

 "God can move mountains," Starke said, as her friend nodded next to her. "We knew we could take it to God and leave it, and it would be all right."