UFW Leading in Oxnard Election : Labor: At stake is right to negotiate on behalf of 600 produce workers. Balloting is the union’s first in the county in years.

The United Farm Workers union led Wednesday in an election to represent more than 600 workers at an Oxnard produce company, but 87 challenged ballots could ultimately decide the contest.

Workers at Ocean View Produce Co., a subsidiary of the Westlake Village-based Dole Food Co., voted 275 to 231 in favor of union representation.

Of the 87 contested ballots, 28 were cast by workers who did not appear on a list of employees eligible to vote and 59 were cast by farm labor contractor employees who union officials contend have no right to vote.

“Realistically it could take a month to resolve these issues,” said Mauricio Nuno, an agent for the state Agricultural Labor Relations Board, which conducted the election. “It’s too close to call a winner. With those 87 votes, it could go either way.”

If the UFW wins at the polls, the union would be certified to negotiate a contract on behalf of the workers.

The election, the first for the UFW in Ventura County since the early 1990s, was also the first test statewide of the union’s renewed commitment to the blood-and-guts work of organizing in the fields, union officials said.

Despite the uncertainty, union officials said Wednesday night they are confident their lead will hold up, resulting in a victory that would demonstrate the union’s re-emerging strength in Ventura County and across the state.

“We’ve won,” said UFW Secretary-Treasurer David Martinez, surrounded by a sea of red-clad union supporters waving red-and-black banners emblazoned with the UFW’s trademark Aztec eagle.

“This is a watershed election,” Martinez said. “Everybody has been looking at this as the real test of whether farm workers can again galvanize behind this movement.”

But company officials said it’s too early to tell how the election will turn out.

“I don’t think you can say one way or another at this point,” Dole spokesman Tom Pernice said. “The number of unresolved challenged ballots is sufficient to offset the outcome of the election.”

Balloting began at 7 a.m. in the middle of a strawberry field blanketed with mist.

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Laborers, wrapped in thick clothing and shielded by bandannas, formed a single-file line as they waited to enter four makeshift voting booths hauled by state election officials from one field to the next.

Elections were held across the Oxnard Plain at six fields managed by Ocean View Produce.

Barred by state law from from congregating at the polls, UFW organizers and company officials monitored the election from the roadside. They followed each other from one field to another, with the cars of UFW supporters sporting pro-union bumper stickers.

Along the rutted roads leading into one field, an anti-union sign was posted on a fence. Company officials wore buttons bearing the same insignia. But despite efforts to thwart the union drive, farm workers and organizers expressed confidence early that the effort would be successful.

“We’re going to win,” farm worker Ricardo Garcia predicted in the morning. “The workers are strong and together behind this movement.”

In March, the UFW launched a statewide campaign to resume organizing efforts in the fields.

Last month, thousands of union members and supporters completed a 24-day, 340-mile pilgrimage from Delano to Sacramento. The march followed an announcement that the union planned to shift its strategy, putting organizers back in the fields to enlist new members and push for new contracts.

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Locally, more than 3,000 farm workers and their advocates marched from Ventura to Oxnard recently to support the new campaign.

At its peak in the 1980s, the UFW had more than 4,000 members in Ventura County and had negotiated contracts with more than two dozen growers. Since then, however, UFW membership locally has dropped to only a few hundred workers and the union now has only two contracts.

“We’ve kept going but it’s been so hard in the last 10 years,” said Martinez, eating sweet bread and sipping hot chocolate while monitoring the election. “But now we’re moving forward. The workers are fed up with the conditions they are forced to endure.”

UFW representatives say the organizing drive was sparked by the dismissal of two Oxnard celery harvesters, who contend they were fired for engaging in union activities.

The workers say they began campaigning for the union after the company lowered the price it paid per box of celery. They gathered enough signatures--more than half of the 600 farm workers at Ocean View--to force the union election.

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Dole officials said the two workers were let go because they violated company rules, but refused to elaborate. Also, Dole officials said they support the workers’ right to hold a union election.

“The company is complying with state and federal laws and supportive of the workers’ right to a free and fair election,” Pernice said.

At the last election site, in the shadow of the towering Edison power plant late Wednesday afternoon, more than 60 workers lined up to vote. In the middle of a freshly furrowed field, the ballots were hand-counted as anxious supporters of the company and the UFW looked on.

When the results were known and the UFW had maintained its early lead, union supporters began waving their banners and flags and shouting pro-union slogans.

“What do we want?” a worker asked in Spanish.

“A contract,” the others responded.

“When do we want it?” he asked again.

“Now!” they shouted back.