Fast by Chavez Inspires More Table Grape Protests

Saying they were inspired by farm labor leader Cesar Chavez’s prolonged fast to protest the use of pesticides, more than two dozen people demonstrated Friday against the sale of table grapes at a supermarket in Santa Monica and another in Malibu.

Chavez, 61, launched the fast on July 17 to protest agricultural pesticides, and to call attention to the United Farm Workers union’s 4-year boycott of table grapes and its fight for labor contracts with growers. Chavez plans to end the fast at 11 a.m. Sunday at a special Mass at a UFW compound in Delano.

Oscar Mondragon, UFW union spokesman in Los Angeles, said the demonstrations brought to 10 the number of supermarkets in the Los Angeles area that have been picketed since Chavez began his fast.

“There will be more demonstrations in the San Fernando Valley and Orange County, as well as Los Angeles,” Mondragon said in a telephone interview. “Our plan is to ask other people to start similar campaigns at stores in their own neighborhoods.”

Mondragon said the support has been a welcome boost for the UFW, which has no labor contracts on table grapes and has lost 50% of its membership in the last 10 years.

“We have not sat inside stores since the 1960s,” Mondragon said. “These are different times. People don’t protest in the streets like they used to . . . nor do we have as many union workers to call on.”

In Malibu, actor Martin Sheen led a dozen protesters on a one-mile march from his home to a Mayfair market, where they carried signs that said “Stop Toxic Death,” and tried to discourage customers from buying grapes.

“Cesar’s fast has brought the issue to national attention,” Sheen said. “Consumers are becoming more and more aware of what they put in their bodies, and this fast for life has crystallized this issue.”

When Chavez ends his fast, Sheen said he and others plan to carry on the fast for three days each.

Chanting “Take grapes off the shelves!” six union supporters entered a Lucky supermarket in Santa Monica and sat down in front of the grapes in the store’s produce section. Four of them had been cited for trespassing at the same market the day before.

“We asked the management of this store and Lucky corporate management to remove grapes from their shelves and they refused,” said John Murphy, 31, of Santa Monica. “Getting arrested . . . does even compare to the suffering that Cesar is going through.”

Lucky spokeswoman Judy Decker said in a telephone interview that the market chain does not plan to take legal action against protesters, provided they do not interfere with customers.

“We recognize their right to protest, but we can’t let them interfere with our customers’ right to shop,” Decker said. “If they do interfere, we will have to take appropriate action.”

Appropriate action on Friday included moving the grape counter out of the produce department and into a far corner of the store. “They wanted us out of sight and out of mind,” said John Murphy’s wife, Maggie, 31. “Our people were killing their grape sales.”

Lucky produce clerk Rich Sasaguchi, 28, agreed with that assertion.

“We were down a couple of hundred dollars in sales on Thursday,” Sasaguchi said. “We haven’t been ordering as many grapes.” Nodding in the direction of the seated protesters, Sasaguchi added, “Kooks, aren’t they?”

Several shoppers interviewed by The Times indicated they had decided to stop buying grapes in an expression of solidarity with Chavez. On of them was Robbi Berman, 31, of Santa Monica, who owns a catering business called Sinfully Rich and Food for Thought. Berman said she stopped buying grapes when Chavez began his fast.

“I’m having to use other kinds of fresh fruits in my cheese baskets,” Berman said. “They look nicer with grapes, but, hey, we have to be concerned about the safety of our food.”

Grape growers and market owners, however, say that pesticides are strictly regulated and that there is no cause for concern.

Meanwhile, Chavez entered the 34th day of his water-only fast at the UFW’s compound in Delano amid increasing concerns about his health. UFW officials called on a doctor Friday to begin a 24-hour watch of the labor leader, who was reported to be bedridden and suffering from nausea and intense stomach cramps.

Public figures planning to attend Sunday’s Mass include the Rev. Jesse Jackson, and Rep. Joseph Kennedy Jr. (D-Mass.) and Kerry Kennedy, both children of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, who was with Chavez when he ended a 25-day fast in 1968, a UFW official said.