Attack on Chavez Denounced

Dave Stirling, chief prosecutor of the Agricultural Labor Relations Board charges in an article (Editorial Pages, Sept. 24) that the United Farm Workers President Cesar Chavez is “zealous, uncompromising, . . . heavy-handed, . . . and offensive,” and that the union’s boycott against the California table grape industry is “unfair and arbitrary.”

As investigators and lawyers with the Salinas office of the ALRB, charged with the responsibility of regulating agricultural labor relations in this state, we are alarmed that this agency’s chief prosecutor would both interject himself into the table grape boycott, and launch a vicious personal attack against the president of an agricultural union.

The table grape boycott is a facet of the ongoing economic battle waged between an agricultural union and the table grape industry. It is essential that this agency remain neutral in this battle, so that the ALRB can apply the law in a fair and even-handed manner.

Stirling’s comments however, represent a gross and unconscionable breach of this standard. As such, we are ethically and professionally compelled to dissociate ourselves from his politically motivated attack on a union that regularly appears before this agency.

By his statements, Stirling demonstrates that the chief prosecutor of this agency is not operating in a fair and balanced fashion.

Rather than taking broadsided swipes against Cesar Chavez and the UFW, Stirling ought to address the growing public concern over his unwillingness to enforce the provisions of the Agricultural Labor Relations Act, which guarantee rights to farm workers.

MARK D. GINSBERG

MILES LOCKER

THOMAS NAGLE

BEN ROMO

SHIRLEY TREVINO

JOSE MILLAN

SALVADOR VILLASENOR

CHARLIE ATILANO

Salinas