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CapitalPress.com
April 22, 2016
California
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Supporters will appeal nullification of decertification vote
Board says Gerawan
gave worker unfair
help in campaign
By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press
Tim Hearden/Capital Press
Vendor Ken Waranius, left, talks with a customer about composting
as Verena Compton plays a drum in a nearby booth at a farmers’
market in Redding, Calif., on April 9. Music and entertainment are
becoming fixtures at many farmers’ markets.
Courtesy of Paul Bauer
Silvia Lopez, left, a worker at Gerawan Farms in Fresno, Calif., is interviewed by a reporter during a
rally in 2013. The state Agricultural Labor Relations Board on April 15 nullified the farmworkers’ 2013
decertification vote.
to Sacramento to hold a rally
at the Capitol.
The decision was blasted by
Anthony Raimondo, an attor-
ney representing Lopez, who
said it silenced workers’ free
choice. He said the state has
remained “the biggest obsta-
cle” to the workers’ ability to
decide for themselves whether
to be represented by UFW.
“This is exactly what we
expected to have happen,”
Raimondo told the Capital
Press. “This was a process that
was rigged from the very be-
ginning to produce this result.
You have a very politically
connected union … (and) this
Gerawan case means a heck of
a lot of money to the union.”
Assemblyman Jim Patter-
son, R-Fresno, whose unsuc-
cessful bill last year to pro-
vide workers certain rights
under a state-imposed labor
contract was inspired by the
Gerawan dispute, said the AL-
RB’s latest decision continues
its pattern of bias.
“No one should be sur-
prised that the ALRB’s board
sided with its hand-picked and
paid-for ‘judge,’” Patterson
said in a statement. “That’s
like the fox who guards the
henhouse agreeing with the
henhouse executioners who
are handpicked by the fox.
This is what political, bureau-
cratic incest looks like.”
ALRB executive secretary
J. Antonio Barbosa countered
in an email the decision was
“based solely on a review of the
administrative record” includ-
ing pleadings, evidence and the
testimony of about 130 witness-
es producing more than 20,000
hearing transcript pages.
Armando Elenes, the
UFW’s national vice president,
has said the problem wasn’t
with the ballots themselves
but with “how the election
was obtained.” The UFW has
accused Gerawan of multiple
violations of state labor law
in participating in the petition
drive, which the company has
denied.
Allegations of miscon-
duct have been flying back
and forth during the nearly
3-year-old conflict, over which
state and federal lawsuits are
already ongoing. The work-
ers and Gerawan contend the
UFW abandoned the farm af-
ter winning representation in
1990, only to reappear in 2012
and seek an agreement with
the company.
A state appeals court sided
with Gerawan as the fruit pro-
ducer challenged the constitu-
tionality of the ALRB’s move
to force a labor contract on
the company, and the matter is
now before the California Su-
preme Court. The UFW faces
an April 25 deadline to submit
briefs, Raimondo said.
Meanwhile, the 9th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals is set
to consider Lopez’s 2014 fed-
eral lawsuit alleging the ALRB
violated the civil rights of
workers by refusing to count
the ballots.
As it is, the ballots will be
kept sealed until all appeals of
the ALRB’s decision have been
exhausted, Barbosa said. A par-
ty can request that the board
reconsider its decision, and
Gerawan can also seek a review
from the state Court of Appeal
within 30 days of the board’s
decision, he said.
As a first step, Raimondo
said he will ask the board to
reconsider its decision. He said
he hopes the board holds onto
the ballots until all the legal
cases are resolved.
“Even if one were to accept
the legitimacy of this process,
which we don’t, it makes ab-
solutely no sense to punish the
workers and reward the union
for what the employer suppos-
edly did wrong,” Raimondo
said.
“What we would hope is
that they wouldn’t be rushing to
have a bonfire today, but we’ve
seen so many things in this
process that have been so dis-
appointing and so unfair to the
workers,” he said. “I can’t say
for sure whether they’re going
to act in good faith or not.”
Entertainment boosts
farmers’ market attendance,
sales, managers say
By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press
REDDING, Calif. — On
a recent Saturday morning
near the steps of City Hall, the
sounds of people singing and a
guitar strumming lent a festive
atmosphere as people snatched
up fresh produce at the farmers’
market.
Across the parking lot, bas-
ket vendor Verena Compton
tapped on a tribal hand drum
called a Djembae as nearby
worm castings vendor Ken Wa-
ranius talked with customers
about the benefits of compost-
ing.
“If nothing else, it’s enter-
taining when they’re here,”
Waranius, owner of Redding
Compost Tea, said of the mu-
sical acts that perform at each
week’s market.
Anita Parker, co-owner of
the Melon Patch, said the music
“absolutely” draws more peo-
ple to the market, thus giving
her and her husband, Kevin,
more opportunities to sell their
farm-fresh eggs and produce.
“It’s just a huge difference
when they have music and en-
tertainment,” said Parker, who
sells at farmers’ markets year-
round. “People are just more in-
volved. When there’s entertain-
ment, there’s just more people.”
As the number of farmers’
markets in California has ris-
en, their offerings have also
expanded, the California Farm
Bureau Federation reports.
More markets now serve as
community events that feature
music, crafts, food booths and
other activities along with sell-
ing fresh produce.
Nearly 750 farmers’ mar-
kets now operate in the Golden
State, double the number 15
years ago, and market manag-
ers believe the diverse offerings
bring more customers who
spend more time — and mon-
ey — at the markets, the Farm
Bureau reports.
Among the unique activ-
ities at farmers’ markets are
face painting for kids at a San-
ta Monica market, cooking
demonstrations and children’s
games in Dublin, Calif., and
artisan gifts in Santa Cruz, Ca-
lif., according to the markets’
websites.
Farmers’ markets can also
be a hub for political activities.
At the Santa Cruz midweek
market this winter, Mike Jolson
found a receptive audience for
his petition drive to put a recre-
ational marijuana initiative on
the state ballot.
“We get a lot of interest,”
Jolson said, adding that many
are supportive of easing restric-
tions on industrial hemp.
At Redding’s main Satur-
day market, musicians have
for several years performed in
exchange for produce donated
by vendors, said alpaca farm-
er Rich Hall, president of the
Shasta Growers Association.
Land purchase in Northern California delta challenged
By SCOTT SMITH
Associated Press
FRESNO, Calif. (AP) —
Officials fighting plans by
the state to build two giant
tunnels under the Sacramen-
to-San Joaquin River Del-
ta to send water south took
their case to court Thursday,
seeking to block one of the
project’s main backers from
finalizing a key land deal.
San Joaquin and Contra
Costa counties say Metro-
politan Water District of
ROP-14-5-1/#24
Southern California failed
to perform environmental
reviews before entering into
a $175 million deal to buy
sprawling delta islands east
of San Francisco.
The struggle for control
of the delta stems from its
vital role supplying water to
vast farmlands and millions
of Californians as far south
as San Diego.
Metropolitan, Southern
California’s largest water
provider, says it may use the
20,000 acres to pile earth
dug from the tunnels project
and store large construction
equipment. It may also use
the land to restore wildlife
habitat and bolster delta lev-
ies, among other possibili-
ties.
Opponents say Metropol-
itan has taken brazen steps
to avoid meeting environ-
mental requirements in the
fragile delta.
“The idea that you can
come in and turn these is-
lands into tidal wetlands,
that sounds great,” said San
Joaquin County Counsel
Mark Miles. “But the cre-
ation of those tidal wetlands
has impacts on the surround-
ing islands.”
Metropolitan is buying
the delta islands from Zurich
Insurance Group. The deal
was signed this month, but it
is not final.
It also comes as Gov. Jer-
ry Brown seeks regulatory
approval to build two giant
tunnels costing an estimated
$15.7 billion to send river
water under the delta and
relieve harm to endangered
fish.
Officials from the two
counties filed the challenge
in the San Joaquin Coun-
ty Superior Court along
with local irrigation dis-
tricts and environmental
groups.
Metropolitan
attorney
Catherine Stites said that
while possible uses for the
land are being considered,
the district hasn’t formally
decided how it will be used,
making the court challenge
premature.
“There’s a whole host of
possibilities that justify Met-
ropolitan buying this proper-
ty,” she said. “None of them
have been selected yet.”
17-4/#4X
SACRAMENTO — A
farmworker’s allies expressed
outrage — but not surprise
— after a state labor board
on April 15 nullified a 2013
union-decertification vote at
Fresno-based Gerawan Farm-
ing Inc.
Attorneys and supporters
of farmworker Silvia Lopez,
who has organized an effort
to end the United Farm Work-
ers’ state-enforced representa-
tion of company workers, say
they’ll appeal the Agricultural
Labor Relations Board’s deci-
sion.
The board upheld an ad-
ministrative law judge’s opin-
ion in September that Gerawan
gave an unfair advantage to
employees trying to oust the
UFW by granting her special
time off to lead the effort and
allowing her to block the farm’s
exit to gather signatures. Com-
pany officials have steadfastly
denied wrongdoing.
The judge, Mark Soble,
also took issue with a $20,000
grant to Lopez from the Cali-
fornia Fresh Fruit Association,
whose president, Barry Bed-
well, has responded that the
grant was made at the request
of other growers not directly
involved in the election.
Given the circumstances,
“it was impossible to know
whether the signatures gath-
ered in support of the decer-
tification petition represented
the workers’ true sentiments,”
ALRB members wrote in their
unanimous 81-page decision,
adding that they agreed that
Gerawan’s conduct “tainted
the entire decertification pro-
cess.”
The board also criticized
Gerawan for “unlawfully” giv-
ing employees a raise in 2014
without negotiating it with the
union and said the company
“colluded” with the Fresh Fruit
Association to plan a bus trip
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