UFW Protest Disrupts Groundbreaking

A protest by about 200 United Farm Workers and their supporters disrupted a groundbreaking Thursday for a redevelopment project that is seen by San Fernando officials as the nucleus for the rejuvenation of the city’s oldest Latino neighborhood.

Carrying signs that read “Stop Poisoning Children, Boycott Grapes” and “Don’t Shop at Tianguis,” the union members booed and shouted as elected officials ceremoniously tossed out the first shovels of dirt for a Latino-oriented supermarket at San Fernando Mission Boulevard and Celis Street.

The project, part of a 55-acre area targeted for redevelopment two years ago, has as its anchor a Tianguis market, one of a chain being developed by Vons.

The protest against the San Fernando Tianguis was the latest in a series begun last month by the UFW against Vons, the largest seller of table grapes in Southern California.

David Martinez, UFW spokesman, said Vons broke an agreement with the union not to advertise or sell the grapes, which are grown with pesticides.

Martinez said the pesticides are causing cancer among farm workers and their children.

Martinez said the union is appealing to its Latino supporters not to shop at either Vons or Tianguis.

He said he knows little about the benefits the San Fernando project will bring to Latinos.

“I only know the pesticides are poisoning our children,” he said.

San Fernando’s leaders cut the groundbreaking ceremony short and adjourned to the city’s senior citizens center for speeches and presentations.

Councilman Jose Hernandez said he normally would support the protesters and the grape boycott.

“I was told they aren’t against this

project.” he said of the protesters. “And it was a peaceful demonstration.”

“This had nothing to do with the project,” said Gabriel Rodriquez, an unsuccessful City Council candidate in the April election.

“The majority of people in San Fernando want this.”

City Administrator Mary Strenn called the demonstration a “photo opportunity. This isn’t about the project.”

“They have a viewpoint and they’re entitled to it,” said Richard Flores, director of marketing for Tianguis. “What they don’t understand is we’ll be able to hire the people and take them out of those fields.”

He said the San Fernando Tianguis will employ between 300 and 350 people, all from the community.

The farm workers were joined by members of the carpenters union, who charged that the Alexander Haagen Co, the project’s developer, is hiring cheaper, non-union labor from Arizona.