The Strawberry Workers Campaign is using the slogan "5 cents for fairness." What does that mean?

According to the California Institute for Rural Studies in Davis, increasing the average workers' piece pay rate by 50 percent would increase the cost of a pint of berries by only 5 cents.

This is the basis for the institute's calculation: at the current piece rate, strawberry workers earn about 10 cents per pint. Increasing that to 15 cents, or by 50 percent, would hike the cost of a pint of berries by 5 cents.

Strawberry worker pay is so depressed that even a significant pay increase would make little difference to consumers or the industry.

Aren't most farm workers treated poorly? Hasn't it always been that way?

There is a long history of farm workers living in poverty, despite their work in rich industries, such as the $650-million-a year strawberry business. But, it doesn't have to be that way. Some workers in industries such as roses, mushrooms and wine grapes have organized with the United Farm Workers and live middle class lives. They receive decent pay and family insurance benefits. Some own homes and are a part of their communities.

Why are strawberry workers now turning to the public for support? Why not just go the traditional route of holding union elections company by company?

Strawberry workers have voted for the UFW in state-held secret-ballot elections, most recently in 1989, 1994 and 1995. Companies responded by firing pickers, plowing under strawberries and selectively shutting down operations. On Aug. 17, 1995, 87 percent of the more than 400 strawberry workers at VCNM Farms in Salinas voted for the UFW. The next week, VCNM plowed under 25 percent of the strawberries. The next month, the company shut down and abandoned the workers.

Strawberry workers are reaching out for help from consumers and other supporters so their industry will negotiate and sign contracts after the union wins elections. This is the workers' only hope for a better life.

Will asking consumers and supermarkets to sign pledges supporting strawberry workers' rights be enough?

The labor movement and the workers hope that such pledges, coupled with the UFW's organizing campaign, will convince the big corporations that control the strawberry industry to treat the workers fairly.

The alliance between the United Farm Workers and the AFL-CIO is historic. The AFL-CIO is helping the UFW with unprecedented resources, while the UFW is building on an impressive string of successes not seen since the death of the union's founder, Cesar Chavez.

Why target the cooler corporations? They don't directly employ the strawberry workers, do they?

Legally, the cooler companies usually do not directly employ the workers. Yet, this handful of large corporations dominate the strawberry growers. They cool strawberries after they are picked. They control prices, shipping and marketing, plus how much workers are paid, whether they get benefits and how they are treated.

The cooler companies should acknowledge they control the industry, be held accountable for the abuses they create and be encouraged to help improve conditions for strawberry workers.

What's the time frame to organize the strawberry workers?

Workers, when facing harsh employers, are not organized overnight. The United Farm Workers and the AFL-CIO are committed to fight beside the workers for as long as it takes.

The strawberry corporations claim that unions are against immigrants Is that true?

The labor movement today stands beside the strawberry workers whether they are immigrants or not. The United Farm Workers has always represented people from many backgrounds and circumstances, including Latino workers such as those who pick strawberries.

For more than 100 years, California agribusiness has resisted unionization by pitting one group of farm workers against workers from other racial and ethnic backgrounds.

Is the United Farm Workers asking people to boycott strawberries?

No. There is no boycott. The only people talking about a boycott are people in the strawberry industry. They're using the threat of a boycott to scare workers away from the union. What the workers and the union are talking about is improving jobs and the industry by ending the abuses these workers face.