University of California

9/22/98 -- Santa Rosa Press Democrat

UFW in at Roederer winery

Company considers fighting election results

Sep. 22, 1998

By MARIA T. GARCIA
Press Democrat Staff Writer

BOONVILLE — Workers at Roederer Estate Winery voted Monday to become the first agricultural employees in Mendocino County to be represented by the United Farm Workers union.

However, a spokesman for the sparkling wine producer threatened to challenge the election, saying the union had subjected workers to "threats and intimidation."

Union officials planned a victory celebration today after the workers voted 27-18 in favor of the union. The election took place at Walraven Ranch, one of the company's properties in Boonville.

"This is a beautiful thing," said UFW organizer Salvador Mendoza. "It's history in the making. This triumph is long overdue."

However, company attorney Michael Saqui said he and other Roederer officials witnessed workers being coerced to vote for the union.

"We do have some objections to this election," Saqui said. "Right now I need to go back and gather evidence of threats and intimidation in the polling area."

Monday's victory is the union's 17th straight win since a new organizing campaign began in 1994 under the direction of UFW President Arturo Rodriguez, the successor to the late Cesar Chavez. In the past four years the UFW has won 21 new contracts with growers, including Sebastopol-based Balletto Farms, the largest vegetable operation in the North Coast, and Vista Management Co. in Napa.

However, not all election victories have resulted in contracts. In Sonoma County, the union and Gallo Vineyards have been negotiating for four years without reaching a settlement.

Roederer is a French-owned sparkling wine producer in Anderson Valley.

UFW officials denied intimidating Roederer workers. They claimed the labor consultants the company hired had tried in vain to persuade workers that they didn't need a union.

Two Roederer workers interviewed Monday said they did not feel intimidated to vote in favor of the union.

"I work here and nobody, nobody, forced us to vote for the union," said Eriberto Vargas, who said he has worked at Roederer for eight years. "This was a free election."

Late Monday, Roederer officials released a statement saying the company is reviewing "its legal and negotiation options so that it can move forward with uninterrupted farming and planting."

After the vote, several Mendocino County growers said they will rely more on farm mechanization and less on farmworkers if more workers choose to join the union.

"Unionization drives everybody's cost up," said Bill Crawford, president of the Mendocino Winegrowers Alliance and owner of McDowell Valley Vineyards in Hopland. "They can unionize and organize all they want, but that's just going to cause more mechanization."

Roederer vineyard workers contacted the UFW at its Santa Rosa office on Sept. 10, seeking the union's representation after 75 employees walked off the job demanding better wages, health coverage and other benefits, Mendoza said. About 80 farmworkers are employed at the Boonville ranch, off Highway 128.

According to the union, at the start of this year's harvest, Roederer farmworkers were offered the same wages as last year, with rates at about $6.25 an hour. In Monday's statement, the company said it pays $95 per ton of grapes harvested, or about $11 an hour.

The workers returned to the fields after the UFW and Roederer officials reached a verbal agreement calling for increased wages, separate pay for tractor drivers, no reprisals against the strikers and a promise that the company would not hire anti-union labor consultants, according to the union.

The state Agricultural Labor Relations Board deemed 49 of the workers eligible to vote. Forty-five turned out to vote in the early morning election.

Rodriguez, who will be in Santa Rosa next week to sign the contract with Balletto Farms, said he hopes Roederer officials will negotiate a contract rapidly.

"I hope they recognize that despite everything they did, bringing in the labor consultants, the majority of the workers still support us," he said.

Copyright© 1998, The Press Democrat