University of California

8/12/98 -- San Jose Mercury News

Salinas grower wins restraining order

Harvesting of rappini hurt by UFW strike

Published Wednesday, August 12, 1998, in the San Jose Mercury News

By BETSY LORDAN
Monterey County Herald

A Monterey County judge Tuesday granted D'Arrigo Bros. Co. a temporary restraining order against striking harvest workers and the United Farm Workers union.

"We're trying to protect our workers and our private property," said Nick Pasculli, the company's director of marketing.

Judge Robert Hinrichs issued the restraining order, which Pasculli said would remain in effect until Aug. 26, when a hearing for a preliminary injunction will be held.

Nearly all the Salinas company's 150 rappini harvesters -- as well as a smaller number of the company's broccoli and lettuce harvesting crews -- remained on strike Tuesday after 12 days of walkouts and pickets. Rappini, an Italian vegetable that is part of the broccoli family, is being harvested largely by replacement workers, some of whom have left the fields to avoid being picketed by UFW supporters.

"The workers have been remarkably successful at stopping the company from bringing in strike-breakers," said UFW spokesman Marc Grossman.

Meanwhile, some of the strikers prepared for a protest against D'Arrigo today in the Italian and Asian neighborhoods of San Francisco.

Grossman said dozens of strikers will join San Francisco county supervisors, religious leaders and union officials in San Francisco neighborhoods where rappini and other specialty crops grown by D'Arrigo are popular.

For more than three decades, the United Farm Workers has sought support in cities with a strong tradition of pro-union sentiment when it wished to pressure growers in California and other Western states who employ migrant farmworkers.

Last Sunday, UFW president Arturo Rodriguez announced a campaign in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia and Boston aimed at increasing public awareness about the union's organizing efforts at D'Arrigo Bros.

These cities are also a key market for D'Arrigo Bros. Co., which was started by the Italian immigrant brothers Andrew and Stephen D'Arrigo in the 1920s.