CAPITAL PRESS AGRICULTURE WEEKLY

December 16, 2005

Business group calls for end to UFW tactic
By Mitch Lies

Capital Press Staff Writer

The Oregon Business Association has asked Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski and Economic and Community Development Director Mike Salsgiver to use their influence to stop a United Farm Workers’ labor negotiation tactic that it says threatens all Oregon businesses.

Association officials said in a letter sent to Kulongoski, Salsgiver and UFW Director Erik Nicholson that the tactic of protesting against businesses that do business with Threemile Canyon Farms is unfair and should be stopped.

“UFW has crossed a line that sets a dangerous precedent for Oregon businesses and the Oregon economy,” wrote association board Chairman James Zehren and association President Lynn Lundquist.

The association urged UFW “to return to the negotiating table to work toward a legislative solution to this impasse.”

UFW in its ongoing dispute with Threemile Canyon Farms recently began protesting against businesses that do business with the farm, including Tillamook County Creamery Association, Kettle Foods and Bank of the West. The farmworker union has held two rallies outside Bank of the West branches in recent months in an attempt to pressure the bank to enter the negotiations and pressure the farm to negotiate a labor contract with the union.

Dawn Bonder, policy director for the OBA, said the association is concerned that the union’s tactics put innocent Oregon businesses in jeopardy. Companies can’t be held hostage to concerns over doing business with Oregon firms for fear they will be attacked by UFW, she said.

In the letter, OBA stated that “dire consequence for businesses throughout Oregon will result if the precedent of using such tactics goes unchecked.”