United Farm Workers President Arturo Rodriguez issued the following statement from the union's Keene, Calif. headquarters after a final vote count was issued by the state Agricultural Labor Relations Board for the Sept. 1, 2005 election at Giumarra Vineyards Corp.

We congratulate Giumarra workers on a heroic organizing effort. They took on the biggest, most powerful table grape grower in the world and almost half the workers voted for the union. It was the biggest private-sector contested union election in the nation during the last year. The workers brought about change at the company. They won their first wage hike since 1992, except for increases in the state minimum wage. They helped change government by winning the first state regulation in the nation to prevent heat deaths in the fields, two of which occurred at Giumarra since last year.

The workers want other changes immediately from the Giumarras: An end to grape packers forced to labor on their knees eight hours a day with no umbrellas. An end to new hires forced to work without pay. An end to strict quotas that force workers to skip work breaks or even taking a drink of water for fear of being disciplined or fired.

In less than two days, we went from more than 2,000 Giumarra workers signing authorization cards saying they wanted to join the UFW to more than 1,100 voting for the union. If blatant bullying and terrorism from the Giumarras had not tainted the election, the union would have won a lopsided victory.

The UFW has filed legal objections to the election with the Agricultural Labor Relations Board. We expect the ALRB to thoroughly investigate violations by Giumarra and invalidate the election. Workers were threatened with loss of company housing, conversion of operations from table to wine grape with significant job losses, termination because of immigration status and much more if they supported the UFW.

The significant support from Giumarra workers developed during a very short time this past summer only strengthens our resolve to win an election at Giumarra.

- end -