Workers Stage Mock Trial of Farmer John Managers

A prolonged contract dispute between Farmer John and its 1,000 unionized packing-house workers was played out in unusual fashion Thursday near an East Los Angeles supermarket.

The workers staged a sardonic mock trial of their bosses on a sidewalk along Whittier Boulevard. The bosses hired a marketing company to hand out discount product coupons to shoppers inside the store.

The events represented an escalation of the union’s 5-month-old ad campaign on Spanish-language radio stations and in newspapers urging Latinos to boycott Farmer John, whose Vernon plant is the largest pork-processing facility on the West Coast.

About 400 members of Local 770 of the United Food and Commercial Workers and several Latino community groups demonstrated along Whittier Boulevard before conducting the “trial,” in which the owners of Farmer John’s parent firm, Clougherty Packing Co., were accused of abusive behavior. The union had planned to hold its trial in a Lucky market parking lot, but the chain obtained a court order banning any “theatrical” activities there, contending they would create a public nuisance.

The workers’ last contract expired 10 months ago and Local 770 has been unable to reach agreement with Clougherty.

Bernie Clougherty, vice president of the parent company, said mangement made its final offer last week. Workers are expected to reject the offer when they vote Saturday.

So far, the boycott does not appear to have significantly affected sales, according to a variety of food industry sources.

The union, whose workers are paid in two tiers, with base wages of $6 and $10 an hour, wants substantially higher raises than management is offering. Farmer John proposes a five-year contract and $500 bonuses.

Reflecting an increasingly defensive policy among unions, Local 770 has avoided striking, fearing the company would hire permanent replacements. Instead, the union in June began a campaign to pressure management into a more favorable contract offer with ads condemning Farmer John as an unsafe meatpacking plant that discriminates against Latinos, who make up the majority of its employees.

Jim Rodriguez, Local 770’s packing-house division director, said Lucky was targeted Thursday “because Lucky is one of Farmer John’s biggest customers.”

Clougherty vowed to stage similar counter-picketing coupon promotions at any other stores the union pickets.