Opponents of UFW Win Election to Represent Strawberry Pickers
Strawberry pickers at Coastal Berry Co. voted in favor of union representation Thursday night in a victory for an upstart workers group, and a defeat for the rival United Farm Workers.
The Coastal Berry Farmworkers Committee received 523, or nearly 54%, of the 972 ballots cast with the California Agriculture Labor Relations Board. The committee needed more than half the total votes cast to represent workers in negotiating with Coastal Berry, the nation’s largest strawberry grower.
The labor relations board polled workers in Santa Cruz, Monterey and Ventura counties.
The Farmworkers Committee, an in-house group of workers who oppose the UFW, spurred the election last week after gathering signatures from more than half of the company’s employees.
John J. Sweeney, president of the AFL-CIO, decried the vote.
Rather than claiming a spot on the ballot, the UFW has decided to fight to nullify the election. The UFW says the Farmworkers Committee is being funded by growers groups opposed to the UFW.
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