Egg Boycott Violated Labor Law, State Says : UFW Failed to Inform Public of Key Issues, Panel Rules
The state Agricultural Labor Relations Board has ruled that the United Farm Workers violated state law in a boycott three years ago against Southern California grocery stores, restaurants and wholesalers supplied by a Ventura County egg distributor.
The ruling, issued Monday, said the UFW failed to abide by state laws that require unions to advise the public about the nature of a labor dispute when conducting a secondary boycott--an action directed at companies that do business with the actual target of a union’s protest.
The decision marks the first time the board has interpreted state agricultural labor laws that apply to secondary boycotts. Egg City attorney Robert P. Roy hailed it as “a major victory because it sets forth parameters under which a union can conduct a secondary boycott.”
Restricted Tactic
By limiting secondary boycotts, the labor board has restricted one of the union’s last effective labor tactics, said Marty Morgenstern, chairman of the Center for Labor Relations and Education at the UC Berkeley. The decision is the latest of many the board has made against the union since its members were appointed by Gov. George Deukmejian, Morgenstern said.
The 1986 labor dispute involved 250 workers at the Egg City chicken ranch in Moorpark. The employees were represented by the UFW in 1986, when they walked off the job in a dispute over wages and were replaced. The strike occurred after the ranch, citing severe financial problems, filed for protection from creditors under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code and cut wages by as much as 30%.
In the Egg City case, one of the violations cited by the board occurred during a UFW picket on Nov. 22, 1986, of Country Eggs, a Compton wholesaler. The board said signs carried by pickets did not disclose that Egg City was the target of the protest and did not describe Country Eggs’ relationship to Egg City.
Other secondary targets in the dispute included Coco’s and Bob’s Big Boy restaurants and Hughes and Lucky markets. The decision states that any business harmed by the violation can seek compensation from the union.
File for Compensation
Roy said the companies will file for compensation but he said the amount they will seek has not yet been determined.
The ruling was criticized by UFW attorneys, who said they will appeal to the state Court of Appeal.
“It’s a terrible decision,” said Dianna Lyons, an attorney for the UFW. “The way they interpret the statute is nonsensical.”
The company, which was listed as the world’s largest chicken ranch in the 1986 Guinness Book of World Records, has since been reorganized and has paid its debts, said Arnold L. Kupetz, an attorney for Egg City during the bankruptcy proceedings.
A Japanese trading firm, Okura Inc., which purchases egg yolks for mayonnaise and noodle products from Egg City, loaned the company about $14 million in exchange for acquiring a 40% interest.
