With help from the United Farm Workers, table grape workers at Giumarra Vineyards Corp. filed a petition for a secret-ballot election on August 25, 2005. To support the petition, 2,182 Giumarra workers out of 2,925 who were employed—or 74.5 percent—signed cards authorizing the UFW to be their representative.

The election was held seven days later, on September 1, 2005. Exactly 2,530 votes were cast. Of these, there are 123 unresolved challenged ballots.

Despite overwhelming support demonstrated a week before by the 74.5 percent of the workers who said they supported the UFW, the union lost the election by the narrow margin of 125 votes, ending up with 48 percent of the ballots cast.

If a candidate in a political election went from 74.5 percent to 48 percent in the last week before the election, it would raise serious questions among journalists and political observers.

What happened at Giumarra during that week prior to the election that caused more than 1,000 workers to change their minds about unionization? What did the Giumarras do to cause such a hemorrhaging of union support?

The Giumarras violated their workers’ most fundamental right guaranteed by the California Agricultural Labor Relations Act: the right to be free from employer threats and coercion when choosing whether or not to unionize.

The Giumarras used illegal threats against workers, interrogations and an illegal grant of a wage increase to cause workers to vote against the union. There were threats of workers losing their jobs, threats of company closure or bankruptcy, threats to change operations—causing widespread job losses—and threats against undocumented workers, all if they voted for the UFW.

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After the union filed its election petition, company President Sal Giumarra held captive audience meetings with many of the crews. Company supervisors made similar threats and engaged in other conduct that violated employee rights.

The following are some examples. (This information was contained in declarations submitted to the state or in personal testimony during administrative hearings, all sworn under penalty of perjury.)

‘Those who vote for the farm workers
union will not have any work with us”

• On August 31, Sal Giumarra spoke with about 73 of the workers at Crew 48 who were gathered together by the forelady, Merita Zepeda. Giumarra said the UFW had called for an election and “those who vote for the farm workers union will not have any work with us.”

• Also on August 31, Sal Giumarra visited foreman Manuel Navarro’s crew, No. 59. Speaking with 45 to 50 workers, Giumarra told them if they voted for the union, they were not free to work there anymore. According to witnesses, Giumarra stated he had a lot of work for the workers and that if the workers wanted to continue working with him to vote against the UFW.

• The same day, in addressing 40 to 45 grape workers in foreperson Felicitas Rios’ Crew 24, Giumarra said if workers supported the UFW, he would bring in labor contractors and there would no longer be any work for the workers. Witnesses testified how some workers told Giumarra they were going to vote for the union. He responded, “There’s not going to be any work for you next year.”

Threats of converting to juice or wine grape

• On August 31, 2005, Sal Giumarra addressed 40 to 45 grape workers in foreperson Felicitas Rios’ Crew 24. Giuimarra asked those who were union supporters to raise their hands. Then he said there would be no more work for them. He told the workers if the UFW won the election he was going to make juice or wine out of the grapes instead of table grapes. Turning table grapes into wine or juice means many workers would be without work because machines would be used in the harvest.

• In the days before the September 1 election, foremen and supervisors distributed a double-sided flyer entitled “Happy Days/Gloomy Days”—usually just prior to Sal Giumarra’s captive audience speeches. This flyer communicated to workers the bold prediction that if they voted for the UFW it would cause a complete loss of jobs and the utter destruction of the employer’s fields.

• On August 22, the assistant foreman of Crew 47, Manuel Salazar, told workers if the UFW won the election, Giumarra would not pay workers any unemployment benefits.

Threatening bankruptcy

• On August 31, 2005, Sal Giumarra visited the 70 workers from Crew 47, headed by foreman Eliseo Salazar. He said if workers voted for the UFW and Giumarra lost the election, the company would go bankrupt and there would be no work for anyone. Giumarra also asked the workers who paid them. This prompted workers to respond that Giumarra paid them, not the union.

• Also one day before the election, while addressing 40 to 45 grape workers in foreperson Felicitas Rios’ Crew 24, Sal Giumarra told workers if the union won the election, the company could go bankrupt.

Intimidating undocumented workers

• One day before the election, the foreman of Crew 6, Jaime Zepeda, gathered his 100 workers and told them that all who voted for the union would lose their jobs because he would become a labor contractor the following year. He also said if the workers voted for the UFW, those workers who did not have legal papers would not be able to work for Giumarra anymore.

• On August 23, union organizers entered the Giumarra fields at lunchtime to speak with workers under the ALRB’s access rule. Supervisor Inocencia Cardenas yelled out to the organizers “in case the union wins what guarantees will you give if the company discharges the coworkers that don’t have documents.” She spoke “forcefully” so all the workers in the crew could hear. After this threat, many of the workers in Cardenas’ crew stopped attending meetings during lunchtime access and began avoiding union organizers.

Federal reports indicate between 50 percent and two-thirds of U.S. farm workers are undocumented. The UFW’s experience in areas where it is active, including the Central Valley, is that it is 90 percent or more.

Illegally and immorally using immigration status to threaten immigrant workers who exercise their right to organize and freely vote can be a very effective tactic.

Illegal pay raise

• In addition to the field workers who harvest the grapes, Giumarra employs about 200 workers who package harvested grapes in a packingshed. After the union organizing began, the company illegally gave the packing shed workers a pay raise in an attempt to defeat the UFW.

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What would happen if when voters in political elections went to the polls, candidates from one party or the other told voters they would lose their jobs if they vote for candidates from the other party?

What Giumarra did was much worse because the nation’s largest table grape producer has absolute control over the livelihood of its workers.

When elections in other countries degenerate into this kind of undemocratic behavior, America and other world democracies roundly condemn it.

What kind of a free and democratic system allows the Giumarras to behave like Third World dictators in the heart of California’s democratic society?

United Farm Workers of America
August 2006