Strawberry workers' victory
UFW signs landmark contract
By Leslie
Feinberg
On March 8 more than 750 strawberry pickers, most of them
Latino, made history. The United Farm Workers and Coastal Berry
Co. signed a landmark contract that gave the union its first
major foothold in California's $600-million-a-year strawberry
industry. Workers won this victory after a four-year battle for
union representation.
Under the three-year contract workers receive a company-paid
medical and dental plan covering themselves and their families,
whether in the United States or in Mexico. The contract also
provides life insurance, six paid holidays, job security, a
seniority system and a grievance procedure.
Workers will also receive wage increases from 7 percent to
15 percent over the three years, depending on job
classification.
Coastal Berry Co., based in Watsonville, Calif., owns 1,000
acres of strawberries in Santa Cruz and Monterey counties and
another 400 acres around Oxnard in Ventura County. The contract
covers the Oxnard workers.
"This breakthrough agreement with the largest employer of
strawberry workers in the country," explained UFW President
Arturo S. Rodriguez, "makes Coastal Berry's 750 Ventura County
employees the best-paid and best-protected workers in the
fastest-growing strawberry producing region in the state."
He challenged other strawberry growers in the Ventura County
area to match these wages and benefits.
Rodriguez paid tribute to the protracted struggle by the
pickers. "They have demonstrated what can be achieved when you
are persistent, committed and when you refuse to give up."
The 750 pickers now have one week to individually decide if
they want to join the union or quit their job.
Coastal Berry picker Javier Vasquez said he believes the
contract will improve working conditions. Strawberry pickers
are among the 700,000 poorly paid farm workers in California
that are, all told, the backbone of the state's giant
agribusiness industry.
They work doubled over, in furrows deep with water,
harvesting the fragile fruit by hand.
In remarks translated from Spanish, Vasquez said he looks
forward to enjoying "respect in the place of work." He added
there have been "too many firings and a lot of discrimination
toward the workers and sexual harassment that I saw almost
every day. Thatwhat motivated me to get involved and to
organize my co-workers."
UFW leaders say this contract bodes well for farm laborers
across the United States.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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