Labor Complaint Filed Against Gallo Winery

State labor officials have filed a complaint against Gallo of Sonoma, alleging that a company foreman pressured farmhands to back a campaign that would oust the United Farm Workers of America from the vintner’s fields.

The complaint, filed this week by the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board, backs up a charge made last month by union officials and will further delay resolution of the anti-union effort within Gallo’s ranks. However, two other charges -- that Gallo officials threatened workers and that family scion Matthew Gallo promised raises if they ousted the union -- were dismissed by the labor board.

Lupe Leon, Gallo’s senior human resources manager, said dismissal of those charges “vindicates Gallo.” The state’s allegation that foreman Mario Crispin Perez encouraged workers in his Twin Valley Ranch crew to sign a document that would lead to the filing of a petition to decertify the union is false, Leon said.

Perez “is not a foreman and did not solicit votes,” she said. “The charge is subject to a hearing that we will move forward with.”

UFW spokesman Marc Grossman countered that the state complaint confirms the union’s contention that “the decertification effort was totally orchestrated by company management.”

The union plans to appeal the dismissal of the other charges, he said.

Workers at Gallo of Sonoma, a unit of behemoth E. & J. Gallo Winery, filed a petition last month seeking to sever ties with the union, less than three years after it won a hard-fought and much-publicized contract there.

Enough signatures were gathered to hold an election. But charges by the union that Gallo had illegally influenced the petition drive -- and countercharges by Gallo that union workers had threatened anti-UFW employees -- brought the drive to a temporary halt. Election ballots have been sealed in a vault pending resolution of the charges.

Jim Collins, director of vineyard operations at Gallo, said the company has been and will remain neutral. “This issue is between our workers and the union.... For us, it’s really unfortunate that these people can’t have their votes counted.”

The countercharges by Gallo against the UFW are still pending before the state board.