Labor Panel Voids Election That Favored UFW Rival

In one of its first acts under Democratic control, the Agricultural Labor Relations Board this week voided an election at the nation’s largest strawberry grower, handing a victory to the United Farm Workers and its organizing efforts in Oxnard.

The board upheld a judge’s decision to throw out results of a union election at Coastal Berry Co., the focus of a three-year UFW campaign to unionize the strawberry industry.

Workers at the company--which farms about 2,000 acres in Monterey, Santa Cruz and Ventura counties--narrowly voted last year to join the upstart Coastal Berry Farmworkers Committee, a UFW rival. The UFW promptly protested the results, arguing that the election should be invalidated because the company failed to notify 162 of its workers in Oxnard that they could vote.

A labor judge agreed and threw out the results in November. The labor relations board’s decision comes at a crucial time, as three new members take seats and both growers and union leaders watch closely for signs of favoritism.

Since it was established in 1975 to referee labor disputes and oversee union elections, the board has been constantly criticized for supposedly being a puppet for growers or labor, depending on the party in power in Sacramento.

UFW officials said Friday they are satisfied with the board’s action, since it now allows organizers to return to the fields and convince Coastal Berry employees to join the union founded by the late Cesar Chavez.

Moreover, UFW officials said they are pleased that Gov. Gray Davis has filled the three open positions on the labor board, a move that will allow the union to push ahead with other organizing activities across the state.

“Everything has been in a state of suspended animation,” said UFW spokesman Marc Grossman. He said the union on Thursday officially requested permission to speak to Coastal Berry workers in the fields.

“While all this has been pending, we haven’t been able to talk to workers,” he said. “That’s why we’ve been so anxious for those appointments to be made. It’s time to get back in the groove.”

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There had been much speculation about who Davis would appoint to the five-member labor board.

As Davis interviewed applicants for the board, both growers and union leaders said they hoped the new administration would elevate the Agricultural Labor Relations Board from an agency that has struggled to become a credible force in the enforcement of farm labor law.

The three new members, announced last week by Davis, are Genevieve A. Shiroma, 44, of Sacramento; Gloria A. Barrios, 48, of Los Angeles; and Herbert O. Mason, 49, of Fresno.

Shiroma was chief of the air quality measures branch for the state’s Air Resources Board, responsible for air quality regulations related to consumer products and toxic air contaminants.

Barrios served as deputy attorney general for the office of the attorney general since 1990 and before that was staff counsel for the Department of Fair Employment and Housing. And Mason was director of the Center for Agricultural Business and a professor in the department of agricultural economics at Cal State Fresno.

All three were sworn in earlier this week and will earn $98,096 a year, reflecting a 5% salary reduction requested by the governor.

“Ultimately, we want to be consistent, we want to be sensible and we want to be fair in making decisions,” said Shiroma, who was appointed chairwoman of the board. “That is the philosophy I bring. And I think that’s what existing members and new members are striving for.”

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Growers representative Rob Roy said Friday he wants to believe that is true. But he said he is worried that the Coastal Berry decision sends the wrong message.

He contends that the new board didn’t fully explore the appeal made by the Coastal Berry Farmworkers Committee and didn’t follow precedent in arriving at the decision.

“I’m very dismayed at what I perceive to be a lack of deliberation on this important issue,” said Roy, president of the Ventura County Agricultural Assn. “I’m hopeful that future decisions on the part of the board are going to be a careful analysis of the facts and legal precedent.”

Coastal Berry President Ernie Farley said he expects representatives from the UFW and the farm workers committee to descend on his fields in Oxnard and along the Central Coast in coming weeks as they step up organizing activities.

“My hope is that everybody follows the letter of the law and gives our workers the opportunity to make their own decisions,” Farley said. “And at the same time, I hope they allow us to continue running a business that grows and picks and sells strawberries, so that everybody can maintain their jobs.”