Firm Accused of Illegally Firing 150 Berry Pickers

Reigniting a battle over unionization of the nation’s largest strawberry grower, attorneys for a right-to-work group Thursday accused an Oxnard company of illegally firing 150 fruit pickers because they refused to join the United Farm Workers union.

In charges filed with the state’s farm labor board, the National Right to Work Foundation alleges Coastal Berry Co., at the behest of the UFW, wrongfully insisted upon union membership as a condition of employment for its workers earlier this year.

The Oxnard berry farm had been at the center of a heated UFW organizing campaign, which ended in May 2000 when the union won the right to represent more than 700 Coastal Berry workers in Ventura County.

But Stefan Gleason, vice president for the Virginia-based nonprofit foundation, said many of the Oxnard pickers did not want union representation and were never informed of their rights, as outlined in U.S. Supreme Court decisions, to object to paying full union dues.

Foundation attorneys filed the unfair labor practice charges against Coastal Berry and the UFW. They seek to force the company to rehire the workers with back pay and force the UFW to post notices informing pickers of their right to reject both full membership and payment of discounted dues.

Officials with Coastal Berry and the UFW deny any wrongdoing.

Coastal Berry President Ernie Farley said the company acted within the law, and in keeping with a collective bargaining agreement reached with the UFW, when it insisted upon union membership for its Oxnard workers.

UFW spokesman Marc Grossman said the National Right to Work Foundation is mistakenly relying on federal precedent, not California law, in seeking to exempt workers from full union membership.