Watsonville (California) Register-Pajaronian May 15, 2007 Ag company, UFW sign $95 million contract BY: AMY LARSON With an “exodus” of companies pulling out of Watsonville, Monterey Mushrooms’ commitment to staying in the area is more important than ever, said Arturo Rodriguez, president of the United Farm Workers.
Mushrooms became a source of job security in Watsonville for more than 650 workers Monday, when the largest mushroom company in the nation sealed a five-year contract with the largest farmworkers union.
“We want to keep jobs here,” Monterey Mushrooms owner Shah Kazemi said.
Surrounded by farmworkers holding UFW flags, Kazemi and the UFW president signed a $95 million contract at the company’s headquarters on Westgate Drive.
“This is a historic event,” said Rodriguez, whose union was founded by Cesar Chavez and organizes about 27,000 farmworkers.
“The unemployment rate in ag is a scary number,” said Monterey Mushrooms General Manager David Fullington. “Many companies are leaving — Birds Eye, (McCormick)-Schilling, Smuckers … the list is long.
“But here is some good news about a company that is fighting the battle and making it work,” Fullington said. “The alternative is not acceptable.”
Seventy-five percent of the company’s farmworkers live in Watsonville, Kazemi said, with the other 25 percent from Salinas.
“California medical benefits are very expensive,” one farmworker said.
The new contract included: increasing wages between 8 percent and 13 percent, guaranteed full medical, dental and vision benefits for the workers and their families and extended paid holiday and vacation days.
Monterey Mushrooms is a grower, shipper and marketer of fresh mushrooms that started in 1971 as a single farm in Royal Oaks and ballooned into an international operation that supplies 500,000 pounds daily.
The company’s farmworkers earn the highest average salary on the Central Coast, at $32,000 a year, Rodriguez said.
Kazemi said his company has lasted where others have pulled out because of a combination of “innovative products and improved productivity.”
“What you did yesterday is not good enough today,” he said.
Monterey Mushrooms figured out how to increase washed and cut mushrooms’ shelf life by converting packaging away from tills to resealed Poly Bags that allows for 360 degrees of air circulation, Fullington said.
The contract took just one month to complete, he said.
Employer-worker relations are strong because mushrooms are a year-round crop, and as a result, laborers remain at the company for a long time.
Relations are also fostered by the Farm Worker Institute of Education and Leadership Development’s work at the company last year.
“We improved lines of communication and involved employees’ opinion and ideas in the decision-making process,” said Joaquin Garza, FIELD’s director of industrial services.
“This led to trust on both sides” and negotiators had a mutual understanding of the businesses’ constraints and the laborers’ needs before they even sat down at the negotiating table, he said.
“This employer treats workers with the dignity and respect they deserve,” Rodriguez said. |