Citing widespread threats and intimidation against Giumarra Vineyards Corp. workers just before employees voted on Sept. 1, the United Farm Workers formally filed objections to the election. Giumarra workers are traveling to Sacramento Monday to demand the Agricultural Labor Relations Board to investigate the objections and invalidate the election. State officials announced after the vote count last week that 171 challenged ballots would determine the outcome of the election.

Declarations signed by Giumarra workers and others and submitted with the election objections document serious violations of the state farm labor law by the grower:

• Foremen warned workers they would not have company housing next year if they voted for the UFW. Giumarra is one of the few growers still supplying substantial farm labor housing, which is in chronic short supply in the Central Valley.
  
  
• Giumarra family members and company officials threatened to convert from table to wine grape production if workers voted for the union. Table grapes demand intensive hand labor. Turning the vines over to wine grape?with workers picking into large gondolas or mechanized harvesting?would mean significant losses of jobs and hours for Giumarra workers.
  
  
• Company supervisors threatened workers with termination because of their immigration status.

Long-standing grievances, low pay and the recent spate of heat-related deaths among Central Valley field laborers, two of them at Giumarra since last year, sparked the election campaign, which national labor observers describe as the largest private-sector contested union vote in the United States during the last year.

Who: Giumarra workers and UFW Vice President Lupe Martinez.

What: Calling on the state farm labor board to investigate legal objections to the Sept. 1 election based on threats and intimidation by Giumarra vineyards.

When: 1 p.m., Monday, Sept. 12, 2005.

Where: Agricultural Labor Relations Board headquarters, 915 Capitol Mall, Third Floor, Sacramento.

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