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FRESNO BEE February 10, 2009
UFW presence at Visalia nursery on the line
SACRAMENTO - The United Farm Workers union is on the verge of getting the boot from a large Valley nursery. Workers at L.E. Cooke Co. in Visalia voted last spring to sever ties with UFW, but the union is still fighting its ouster before the state board that oversees labor elections. If certified by the state, the election loss would be a big blow for labor organizers, who fought hard for the contract 12 years ago. The UFW alleges the company failed to provide an accurate list of eligible voters, preventing the union from reaching out to workers. The complaint will be heard in March before an administrative law judge. The Agricultural Labor Relations Board in January dismissed four other UFW objections, including charges that the company intimidated workers. L.E. Cooke is a wholesaler that grows fruit and landscape trees and shrubs. Union workers approved the decertification by a 66-53 vote. Fabian Betanzos, an employee who filed the decertification petition, could not be reached for comment. When the union signed a contract with the company in 1997, organizers considered it a big win, part of a major field-organizing campaign launched three years earlier. The union has had mixed success lately. Since 2000, the UFW has won 11 elections and lost seven, according to ALRB records. In that time, the union has been decertified six times while stopping four decertification tries.
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