11 a.m. news conference Tuesday, July 21

Central coast farm workers camp out
at ALRB urging rejection of violence &
'sham' election bid by big berry grower

Leaders of a vigil by 200 central coast farm workers outside the farm labor board's Sacramento headquarters will use a Tuesday news conference to urge action by state officials against violence and a bid for a "sham" union election at California's largest strawberry ranch.

Farm workers and supporters began the week-long protest Monday outside the Agricultural Labor Relations Board, across from the state Capitol. The UFW has asked the ALRB to reject a petition filed Thursday for an election at Coastal Berry Co. by an anti-union grower-backed group.

United Farm Workers co-founder Dolores Huerta and state legislators will urge the ALRB to act on evidence that managers for Coastal Berry in Watsonville organized and ordered an anti-union riot in their own fields that injured pro-UFW workers and law officers on July 1. The documentation also shows that after the violence management personnel went field-to-field systematically forcing pickers to sign election petitions under the threat of losing their jobs. (See the UFW's summary of evidence handed over to the ALRB.)

Who: UFW co-founder Dolores Huerta, 200 central coast farm workers and supporters conducting an all-week vigil outside the Agricultural Labor Relations Board's headquarters.

What: News conference urging the ALRB to reject an election petition sponsored by ranch managers who organized anti-union violence in their Watsonville-area fields that injured berry pickers and law officers on July 1.

When: 11 a.m., Tuesday, July 21, 1998.

Where:ALRB headquarters, 915 Capitol Mall, Sacramento (across from state Capitol).

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