Grower settles suit over unpaid labor

By Dale Rodebaugh
Mercury News Staff Writer

Tuesday, December 22, 1998

The United Farm Workers union announced Monday that a large Watsonville berry grower has agreed to pay $283,000 to almost 500 raspberry pickers who were forced to work without pay before and after their normal shifts over four seasons.

The negotiated settlement covered the 1994-97 seasons at Reiter Berry Farms, which grows strawberries and raspberries. Reiter is one of the largest suppliers of berries for industry giant Driscoll Strawberry Associates Inc.

Bob Donovan, chief financial officer at Reiter Berry Farms, confirmed the agreement, saying that the distribution of checks began Dec. 10. The firm admitted no wrongdoing in agreeing to the settlement, Donovan said.

``It's strange that the UFW, which wasn't a party to the lawsuit, hasn't asked the workers to vote for union representation. They've been organizing for two years now,'' Donovan said in a jab at the union's long-awaited move to bring strawberry workers under the black-eagle flag.

Under the agreement, Reiter raspberry pickers stand to receive from $100 to $1,400 each for unpaid work, according to UFW President Arturo Rodriguez, who spoke to news media via telephone.

Pickers, according to the lawsuit, were required to arrive early to get boxes and work assignments. At the end of the day, workers sometimes had to stay late to fill a tray of berries, complete picking a row or wait to get their harvest tallied.

In a similar settlement last year, about 1,000 employees and former employees of Gargiulo Inc. shared $500,000. After the lawsuit was filed, Gargiulo, which was owned by Monsanto Co., sold its strawberry operation to investors, who renamed the firm Coastal Berry Co.

Rodriguez said no further lawsuits involving the same issues are pending.

"Before the Gargiulo case, I think the practice was pretty common. But I think that is changing," Rodriguez said.

The Reiter lawsuit is one of a number of skirmishes by the UFW against growers in a bigger battle to organize 20,000 strawberry workers in the state that produces 80 percent of the strawberries in the nation.

In January the union signed its first strawberry contact with Swanton Farms, an organic producer located just north of Santa Cruz. Swanton employs about 50 workers.

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