BOARDMAN - Threemile Canyon Farms, the 93,000-acre operation in Morrow County, is allowing its workers to organize.
Farm managers recently signed an agreement with the United Farm Workers, saying they would allow workers to join the union if they desired.
Previously, managers said they wanted the workers to choose for or against union representation by secret ballot. But with the agreement, management said it would allow workers to decide through a card-check system in which union organizers ask workers directly to choose union representation and sign a card stating their choice.
"Our employees have the right to have freedom of association," Marty Myers, general manager of Threemile Canyon Farms, told the Oregon Board of Agriculture last week. "We believe these employees have the right to choose and should be able to choose by secret -ballot election. We just couldn't get that done."
Oregon law does not require such elections for worker representation, but Threemile Canyon Farms is trying to change that.
In an interview later, Myers said union organizers have access to employees before and after work and during lunch periods.
The union has until late December to contact employees at the workplace, but it has no deadline to determine if a majority of the farm's workers want to join. Threemile Canyon Farms employs 200 workers year-round and up to 400 workers seasonally, Myers said.
"We're going to get through this in a positive way, no matter what the outcome," Myers said.
Erik Nicholson, a regional spokesman for the United Farm Workers, said he's glad farm managers finally have allowed union organizers access to employees on the farm.
"We thought it was a very positive development," he said.
Nicholson declined to share how many workers have opted for union representation, or what percentage.
"The response has been very positive, very encouraging," he said today.
Len Bergstein of Northwest Strategies in Portland, a spokesman for Threemile Canyon Farms, said the company is taking a neutral position on the union's organizing efforts and is not talking with workers about the card-check enrollment.
"We don't ask whether they've signed it. We don't answer their questions," he said. "If 51 percent sign, then the union becomes the recognized bargaining unit."
The union is trying to rally the troops, however. The National Farm Workers Ministry Web site Wednesday called for union sympathizers to support Threemile Canyon Farms workers by calling ConAgra's President Gary Rodkin and tell him workers' rights are being violated. ConAgra, through Lamb Weston, is one of the farm's major customers.
The Web site claims Threemile Canyon Farms is not living up to the Aug. 21 agreement and is allowing supervisors to conduct an anti-union campaign. It asks callers to demand that farm managers rehire a fired worker and reaffirm its commitment with the UFW to remain neutral.
Nicholson said management has allowed supervisors to circulate anti-union petitions and is coercing workers to sign them with the threat of being fired.
One worker, Gerardo Sanguino, already has been fired for refusing to sign the petition, Nicholson said.
Bergstein said if the union has a beef with farm managers, the agreement provides for binding arbitration to resolve differences.
"If they believe we are not following the agreement ... I would expect them to file a grievance," Bergstein said Thursday.
Despite the union's latest complaints, Bergstein said Threemile Canyon Farms is committed to make this process work.
Ultimately, farm managers want a change in Oregon law to allow a secret-ballot election.
"We will continue to work on that," Bergstein said.
As he told the Board of Agriculture, "This isn't a Threemile Canyon Farms issue. Until the state rules are set and in force, it's really the World Wrestling Federation out there."
