THE UFW'S MARCH
FOR ECONOMIC JUSTICE
By Dick Meister
Futile, some are saying about the United Farm Workers'l0-day march up the
Central Valley to Sacramento that was aimed at convincing Gov. Gray Davis to
sign the bill that finally would guarantee farmworkers the unfettered right
of unionization.
Certainly growers, big contributors to Davis' campaign treasury, may
indeed prevail. But history says maybe not. Such UFW marches -- and there
have been several -- invariably have been followed by important gains.
It began in 1966, when 100 members and supporters of what would become the
UFW set out from Kern County under the leadership of Cesar Chavez for a
25-day trek to Sacramento. There they demanded a law that would grant them
the union rights they had been seeking in a widely publicized strike against
the state's grape growers.
The marchers didn't get the law. But they gained valuable support as they
made their way up the Central Valley, demonstrating the breadth and
dedication of the coalition that had formed around the strike and bringing a
sense of hope and solidarity to workers who joined them en route.
They were joined by more than 8,000 supporters as they paraded boldly onto
the marble steps of the State Capitol to celebrate their first victory.
Schenley Industries, then the owner of a major vineyard, had agreed to
negotiate a union contract. Contracts with a half-dozen other wine grape
growers followed quickly, and later a worldwide boycott led to contracts
covering all the state's table grape growers.
But then the Teamsters Union began offering growers the irresistible option
of signing contracts that allowed them to grant relatively little to their
workers, who would be forced to join the Teamsters. Certain that workers
would opt for UFW representation if allowed to vote on the matter, the UFW
set out in 1975 to once again demand a state law that would give them that
right.
As in 1966, the union pressed the demand with a march -- this time a
week-long march from San Francisco to Modesto, headquarters of the huge
Gallo Winery, which had rebuffed vineyard workers' demands for a
representation election.
More than 15,000 people marched into Modesto, convincing Gov. Jerry Brown
and state legislators that the UFW retained a sizeable and influential
constituency and great organizational ability. The union soon had the
collective bargaining law it had sought, the Agricultural Labor Relations
Act.
The ALRA says simply that if a majority of a grower's employees vote for
union representation, the grower must negotiate a contract with their union.
That's generally what happened during the first half-dozen years after the
law went into effect. But since Democrat Brown left office in 1983, the law
has been barely enforced, under Brown's Republican successors, George
Deukmejian and Pete Wilson, as well as under Democrat Davis, who followed
them.
Growers whose workers have voted for UFW representation have been allowed to
stall or delay contract negotiations for months, years -- even decades -- in
violation of the ALRA requirement that they "bargain in good faith."
Meanwhile, they have continued to impose the wretched working conditions
that led the workers to vote for unionization.
Contracts have been signed by growers on only 185 of the 428 farms where
workers have voted for unionization since the ALRA's passage, and less than
50 of the contracts are still in effect.
Thus the vast majority of farmworkers remain mired in poverty. Their pay
averages less than $10,000 a year and they have few, if any, of the fringe
benefits provided other workers, few rights and little protection from the
arbitrary acts of employers.
The bill backed by the marchers would block growers from using delaying
tactics. It mandates that stalemated contract negotiations be turned over
to arbitrators who would hear the arguments of both parties and dictate a
contract settlement.
Both houses of the Legislature have passed the bill, authored by Democratic
State Sen. John Burton of San Francisco. But whether Gov. Davis will sign it
and finally grant farmworkers the basic rights promised them a
quarter-century ago may very well depend on how much public support was
generated by the band of marchers who set out for Sacramento in mid-August
through the heart of California's fertile farmland.
Copyright Dick Meister, a freelance columnist in San Francisco who
co-authored "A Long Time Coming: The Struggle to Unionize America's Farm
Workers" (Macmillan).
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