Farm’s New Owner to Honor Contract

A family of third-generation growers has taken over the operation of Southern California’s largest mushroom farm, preserving more than 300 jobs and a landmark union contract forged under a 2003 state law designed to resolve farm labor disputes.

Brothers Charles and James Ciarrocchi head an investment group that bought the Ventura plant for an undisclosed amount in late November from the Pictsweet Co., which announced plans in October to shut down and sell the 45-year-old facility.

The new owners, who operate primarily in an area of Pennsylvania calling itself the “Mushroom Capital of the World,” renamed the facility the California Mushroom Farm. They said they were eager to tap their new West Coast workforce to better serve their national customers.

The sale represents the latest chapter for the embattled mushroom farm, where workers fought for nearly two decades for a new labor contract.

That fight ended last year when workers at the Ventura facility -- represented by the United Farm Workers union -- won a three-year pact that brought higher wages, more job security and a company-paid medical plan to the plant’s employees and their families.

The contract was the first put into place under the state’s mandatory mediation law, adopted in 2003 to allow agricultural workers or employers to seek mediation after farm labor negotiations reach an impasse.

The agreement ended a bitter fight between the company and the UFW, a struggle punctuated over the years by protest marches and a nationwide boycott of Pictsweet products that slowed production and drove away customers.

But just months after the contract was signed, Pictsweet officials announced plans to close the Ventura plant, saying they had been struggling for years to continue operations and preserve jobs through tough economic times.

The announcement threw the fate of the new labor pact and the farm’s 300 jobs into question.

The sale, finalized two days before Thanksgiving, preserved those jobs.