Forced to Unionize: Is this Cesar Chavez’s Legacy?

“Forced to Unionize: Is this Cesar Chavez’s Legacy?” was
produced by Zach Weissmueller. Approximately 8
minutes.

This video originally aired March 13, 2014. Original writeup is
below.

“If Cesar were here today, he certainly wouldn’t be supporting
what’s being done now, which is a union trying to impose itself on
employees,” says Dan Gerawan, co-owner of Gerawan Farms, one of the
nation’s largest producers of peaches, plums, and nectarines and a
major employer of California farm workers.

Gerawan Farms and some of its employees are in the midst of a
fight with the United Farm Workers (UFW) union, which claims to
represent Gerawan’s workers, despite not having collected dues or
bargained on behalf of them for more than two decades.

After years of failed efforts to unionize California’s migrant
farm workers, a massive grape strike started in the small farming
town of Delano sparked a movement leading to the rise of the UFW.
The face of this movement was a man named Cesar Chavez, a man
revered by labor historians as the bringer of “peace in the
fields,” who has roads, schools, and even holidays named after him.
He’s also the subject of an upcoming biopic starring Michael
Peña.

But since then, much has changed in the agriculture industry and
in labor politics. The UFW, which once boasted more than 50,000
dues-paying members, now claims fewer than 5,000. Yet with
unionization in the industry on the decline, real wages have
steadily increased. This might explain why many workers at Gerawan
Farms have begun to protest—not against their employer, but against
the union.

Gerawan Farms employs more than 10,000 workers a year—more than
double the entire membership of UFW—and points to county employment
statistics to back up claims that it’s an industry leader in
employee compensation. UFW won an election to represent Gerawan
Farms’ workers in 1990. The company and the union had a single
bargaining session, and then UFW disappeared from the scene,
according to Dan Gerawan.

The appearance of collusion between the ALRB and the UFW
disturbed Gerawan management and infuriated many of the workers,
who staged a protest in front of the ALRB offices in Visalia. In a
move reminiscent of the famous Delano grape strike, some even
travelled to Sacramento hoping to have their voices heard by
Governor Jerry Brown, the very same governor who created the ALRB
while in office 38 years ago to create “peace in the fields” and
act as a neutral arbiter between companies, workers, and
unions.

“Often what our employees tell us is, they don’t trust the
ALRB,” says Gerawan. “They’ve cited Silas Shawver himself as
someone they don’t trust.”

Following the protests, the ALRB finally granted the workers
their election, to be overseen by ALRB and administered by Shawver.
Prior to the elections, Gerawan Farms granted ALRB access to their
facilities to conduct interviews and run private sessions to inform
workers of their voting and unionization rights.

What were the election results? We don’t know. Shawver has
impounded the votes in an office safe, pending further
investigation of the unfair labor practice allegations. He failed
to provide a timeline for this investigation.

“What does that mean, to have an election and not count the
votes?” asks Lopez. “Where is the right of the farm worker? Where
is it?”

Lopez and her co-workers have filed a class-action lawsuit
against the ALRB for failing to count their ballots. Gerawan Farms
is also suing, alleging that mandatory mediation is
unconstitutional. UFW continues to call for a contract to be
imposed and, alongside ALRB, alleges that Gerawan has engaged in
unfair labor practices.

“The main problem is in the ALRB office,” says Lopez. “They are
supposed to be neutral with us. But they are not. We can see that
they are favoring the UFW organization.”

Watch the above video for an inside look at this fight, and
scroll down for downloadable versions. Produced by Zach
Weissmueller. Camera by Sharif Matar and Weissmueller.
Approximately 8 minutes.