UFW Wins in Calif and Mich

"There's light at the end of the tunnel," as Lyndon Johnson used to repeatedly tell us, but this time that appears to be true for the United Farm Workers (UFW) and their many years' struggle to organize California farmworkers.

A bill is nearing passage in the California Senate Legislature that would provide farmworkers with rights to collective bargaining and democratic representation elections. UFW organizers are confident that they would win representation rights if open elections were held. The Teamsters Union, which now holds contracts with the vast majority of grape and lettuce growers, enjoys little popular support among field workers themselves and would be expected to fare poorly in open elections.

The farm labor bill has the backing not only of the UFW, but also the grower's lobby, and California Governor Edmund Brown. It has cleared the State Senate and action on it is expected soon in the State Assembly (lower house).

In conjunction with International Farmworkers Week May 4 - 10, Michigan UFW supporters held an 82-mile "Farmworkers March for Justice" from the State Capitol in Lansing to the Blessed Sacrament Cathedral in Detroit. They billed the last 10 miles of the march as a walk-a-thon and gathered almost $30,000 in pledges. Funds will be used to support organizing efforts, health clinics, and legal programs of the UFW in California.

Meanwhile, Campus Corners in Ann Arbor is seeking an injunction that would virtually stop picketing efforts at their store. The Ann Arbor UFW Support Committee has been picketing Campus Corners as part of their boycott campaign against Gallo wines. Gallow uses non-UFW labor to pick its grapes.

Campus Corners is asking that the committee be banned from having more than one picket at each entrance to the store and these picketers could be no closer than 10 feet from the entrance. UFW supporters would be forbidden from carrying signs calling Campus Corners "unfair to labor" for refusal to honor the Gallo wines boycott. The suit also asks $50,000 in damages from the committee, and is tentatively scheduled for a hearing May 29.

According to support committee members, the following stores have agreed to halt future orders of Gallo products and cease carrying them once current stocks run out: Sgt. Pepper's General Store, Ralph's Market, White's Market, Mendell's Pharmacy, and the Big Ten Party Store. The SUN staff urges readers to support the stores that support the boycott. Also, of course, boycott Gallo and non-UFW grapes and lettuce from California.

"I don't think the Teamsters have a chance, when you're talking about workers who have seen Teamster goons and have worked under Teamster contracts that haven't given them anything," David Super, a local UFW support organizer told the SUN.