ASSOCIATED PRESS United Farm Workers sign first It is state's largest agricultural work agreement to date BY JOSEPH B. FRAZIER PORTLAND -- The United Farm Workers and Threemile Canyon Farms -- at 93,000 acres one of the largest dairying operations in the region -- ended years of often-bitter conflict on Monday by announcing a three-year labor agreement. It was the UFW's first contract in Oregon and the largest agricultural work agreement ever reached in the state. Some employees had filed lawsuits alleging wrongful firing and gender discrimination at the dairy operation, which employs about 250 mostly Hispanic workers. During the dispute, which began with the UFW's first organizing attempts in 2003, the union urged companies not to buy from Threemile Canyon, located near Boardman about 150 miles east of Portland. A major dairy client for Threemile Canyon, which began operations in 2000, has been the Tillamook cheese factory on the Oregon Coast. Key provisions of the new labor contract define mutual rights and obligations. Neither side can take labor issues to third parties not associated with the company or union and the contract provides for a family medical plan. The contract represents the first large-scale union contract on an Oregon farm, although the Woodburn-based Northwest Treeplanters and Farmworkers United, or PCUN, has signed several smaller contracts in the Willamette Valley. |