University of California

8/5/98 -- San Francisco Examiner

State panel delays strawberry ruling

Agriculture labor board wants 2 more weeks to study UFW's legal objection to election

By ERIC BRAZIL
of the Examiner Staff

Certification of a furiously contested election at the central coast's biggest strawberry grower has been delayed for more than two weeks because of objections raised by the United Farm Workers Union.

The UFW was a loser in the July 23 election at Coastal Berry Inc., even though it wasn't on the ballot. The Coastal Berry Farmworkers Committee, an avowedly anti-union group, won 523-410, over "no union" in the voting.

Agricultural Labor Relations Board Executive Secretary J. Antonio Barbosa on Wednesday found that UFW's objections to the election raised "novel legal issues" that required resolution by the full board.

The upshot of Barbosa's order is that certification of the Coastal Berry Farmworkers Committee as collective bargaining representative for some 1,000 Coastal Berry Inc. workers in Santa Cruz, Monterey and Ventura counties has been delayed until at least Aug. 21.

Ordinarily, the winning side in an ALRB election is certified within five days.

The UFW contends that the election was a sham vote, marred by violence, voter intimidation and, in Ventura County, failure to give 162 workers a chance to vote.

The UFW filed several formal objections to the election, but before the full ALRB can consider them it must first resolve the issues laid out by Barbosa. One is whether a labor organization like the UFW that wasn't on the ballot can object to the results. The other is whether individual employees of Coastal Berry can raise objections.

"Our argument is that the Agricultural Labor Relations Act says "any person' can file objections," said UFW attorney Marcos Camacho. The ALRB "can't rewrite the statute," he said.

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