UFW-Gallo dispute in spotlight

Union works to focus attention on local contract; wine giant dismisses tactics, wants more talks

Sunday, July 17, 2005

By MARY FRICKER
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

The United Farm Workers union is pressing for political advantage this week with a flurry of actions meant to force contract concessions from Gallo of Sonoma - a strategy popular with union supporters but sure to further alienate the grower community.

Building on its call last month for an international boycott of Gallo wines, the UFW and its supporters are holding vigils, marches and Internet organizing campaigns in the days leading up to the next bargaining talks.

They will even ask the Santa Rosa Junior College board Tuesday to hold off naming its new winemaking facility at Shone Farm after the Gallo family until a contract agreement is reached. The Gallo family is contributing $150,000 to the facility.

The UFW's purpose is to draw national attention to its view that Gallo wages and benefits for farmworkers in Sonoma County are too low. The union believes negative publicity and public pressure will convince Gallo to offer its workers a better deal.

"Gallo is very image conscious," said UFW spokesman Marc Grossman. "No company that relies on the goodwill of consumers wants to endure negative publicity."

Gallo officials said the tactics are failing to sway public opinion against the company. What's really needed is more negotiating, said Gallo spokesman John Segale.

"The UFW may prefer these events to rally their supporters, but from what we have seen the UFW has failed to capture the attention of the general public," he said. "Gallo wants a new contract. It is imperative that the UFW return to the bargaining table on July 21 committed to negotiate in good faith."

Gallo of Sonoma's 300 farmworkers have been working without a contract since their agreement expired in November 2003. Counting Gallo, the UFW represents about 550 workers at six growers in Sonoma and Napa counties, Grossman said. The union has about 27,000 members statewide, he said.

The key sticking points in the UFW negotiations with Gallo appear to be wages and the UFW's objection to the two-tiered system in which about 90 employees hired by Gallo get health care and other benefits, while the 220 men who work for farm labor contractors get the same $8.38 hourly base pay but no benefits or job security.

The UFW claims Gallo uses the contract workers to undermine the efforts of the union. Gallo says it uses the contract workers to gain greater flexibility in getting the skills it needs, when they are needed.

Nearly two years of negotiations have been marked by bitter recriminations, pitting the nation's leading farmworkers' union against the world's second-largest wine company, E&J Gallo Inc., the Modesto-based parent company of Gallo of Sonoma.

Both sides have been criticized by the Agricultural Labor Relations Board.

The board found Gallo guilty in November of trying to influence workers to vote against the union. In June, it found enough evidence to justify a hearing on Gallo's charge the UFW is refusing to bargain in good faith, in part because the union refused to negotiate in the 10 months leading up to its boycott announcement last month.

Many Sonoma County growers object to UFW tactics, said Nick Frey, executive director of the Sonoma County Grape Growers Association.

"I don't understand the value of the tactics they're doing now. They aren't desirable for Sonoma County agriculture," Frey said. "They need to focus their effort at the bargaining table."

Growers also reject the negative image the UFW is spreading, Frey said.

"Our members are committed to supporting their employees. Our wages are well above the average in the state. The general growing community takes very seriously the well-being of our employees," Frey said.

The hourly base wage for farmworkers in Sonoma County is $7.98, compared to $7.55 statewide, according to the state Employment Development Department.

Some growers worry the UFW will intimidate their workers into joining the union and will destroy the close relationship they have with their employees, said Lex McCorvey, executive director of the Sonoma County Farm Bureau.

"Growers are watching with interest and concern not only for their own operations, but for the benefit of their employees," McCorvey said.

Some growers object specifically to the United Farm Workers, which is seen as operating more as a social movement than a businesslike union.

This week the UFW is drawing on the strength of that social movement, which has supported the union since its storied beginnings under founder Cesar Chavez, both in Sonoma County and nationwide.

Saturday, nearly 50 members and supporters of the National Farm Worker Ministry who had come from across the country for a meeting in San Rafael held a prayer vigil outside Gallo's MacMurray Ranch in Healdsburg in support of the UFW's boycott of Gallo wines.

The ranch was the site of the annual Sonoma County Showcase of Wine & Food, which gave the ministry a chance to reach a large number of wine drinkers, said Virginia Nesmith, executive director of the St. Louis-based religious group.

"It's a message that people of faith care about this issue and will be sharing it with their colleagues around the country," Nesmith said. "We know the effect that consumers can have in getting the company to think about how they're treating the workers."

UFW union President Arturo Rodriguez, who also attended the vigil, called the ministry's support "powerful" because members take the issues back to congregations around the country.

"They want to see the workers treated with dignity," Rodriguez said. "It fills me with a lot of encouragement."

Today, the UFW expects about 1,000 farmworkers and supporters from around the state to participate in a march led by Rodriguez through the Mission and Castro districts of San Francisco and down Market Street.

On Tuesday, SRJC board member Marsha Vas Dupre will call on fellow board members to deny Gallo naming rights to the Shone Farm winemaking facility until the UFW contract issues are resolved.

Dupre said she does not expect the board to approve her proposal, but she believes the college should take a lead in encouraging fair labor practices on the region's farms.

Also Tuesday the UFW will hold its first Internet organizing effort, with supporters gathering at locations in 19 U.S. cities, including Santa Rosa, to forward the Gallo boycott appeal to their personal and professional e-mail lists.