UFW Adds Irvine Growers Group to Lawsuit

The United Farm Workers union said Wednesday it has extended its legal dispute against California strawberry growers to an Irvine-based organization that represents much of the state’s fresh produce industry.

About 40 union staffers and supporters demonstrated Wednesday outside the Western Growers Assn.’s Irvine headquarters, where the trade group’s board of directors was holding its quarterly meeting.

The original lawsuit, which the union filed in August in Santa Cruz Superior Court, alleges that strawberry growers in Watsonville, the heart of the state’s strawberry industry, illegally supported sham groups intended to thwart a Farm Workers campaign to organize strawberry workers.

Two years ago, United Farm Workers launched plans to organize about 20,000 California strawberry workers, but has yet to win any elections, union staff members said.

Defendants in the union’s lawsuit include two organizations--Agricultural Workers Committee and Agricultural (“Ag”) Workers of America--that the union contends were sham outfits. The union sought to enjoin the defendants from soliciting donations and selling merchandise to the public by misrepresenting the two organizations as independent workers groups solely supported by the public rather than by growers.

Lawyers for Western Growers and other defendants deny the allegations.

Ron Bastramian, a former lawyer for the Agricultural Workers Committee, said the group’s donations came from workers and the public and he wasn’t aware of any money it received from growers. He said the group wasn’t anti-union, but objected to the United Farm Workers’ tactics.

He said the committee recently filed for bankruptcy, but he still represents its sole employee. He also said that the separate Agricultural Workers of America existed for only a few months last year.

Doug Kerr, Western Growers’ general counsel, said that two months ago, Western Growers itself sued the United Farm Workers in a separate case in Santa Cruz.

In that case, the trade group accused Watsonville-based Coastal Berry Co. of colluding with the union. But last week, strawberry pickers at Coastal Berry elected a workers group that competes with United Farm Workers.