FARMWORKERS AND THEIR ELECTIONS:

...Just when most observers were predicting another year of non-legislation and harvest strife, the new governor, Jerry Brown, engineered a compromise farm labor bill which catapulted him into the national spotlight...

...Only because the Brown bill permits the 1973 strikers to vote does the UFW even have a chance in Modesto...

...The Teamsters' lack of contact with, or loyalty from, farmworkers has caused them considerable embarrassment in the past...

...ord Foundation...

...The latest in the Teamster embarrassment series was a strike they tried to call in the Salinas Valley on July 15, 1975-it fizzled because the pro-UFW workers refused to go along...

...To paraphrase the song, however, it's a long, long way from the legislation of May to the year's final harvests in December, with many difficult problems awaiting Brown's yet-to-be-appointed five-person Agricultural Labor Relations Board...

...Some growers are making wages and working conditions as attractive as possible for their workers, hoping the majority will vote "no union" in any election...

...Four general categories of farmworkers are most likely to vote against the UFW: (1) the "Miscellaneous" group listed above who oppose the Mexican culture of that union, (2) some higher status Mexican-American workers such as tractor drivers and mechanics who feel threatened by the Chavistas' egalitarian ideas, (3) former UFW members who had bad experiences with the operations of hiring halls which were poorly managed, and (4) some of the many illegal aliens who are especially vulnerable to the threats of growers, labor contractors, or Teamsters...

...edward j. walsh (Edward J. Walsh, a member of the faculty of Penn State University, is currently completing a year's field research on the grower, Teamster, UFW conflict, sponsored by the Ford Foundation...

...The most serious mistakes of the Chavistas are commonly acknowledged to have emanated from their Coach-ella Valley hiring hall, and when elections take place in that Valley next spring it is possible that the UFW will be somewhat less popular with the workers than elsewhere...

...Estimates of the total number of farmworkers in California range from 200,000 to 300,000, but even such ballpark figures are suspect because of the highly mobile labor force, intentional deception by growers employing illegal aliens, and multiple identities used by many farmworkers for tax evasion purposes...

...The most important aspect of the new legislation is its shift of considerable power from the growers to the farmworkers...

...It is unlikely that many will be bought, however, and I'll stick by my prediction that the UFW will take at least 70 percent of the elections this fall...

...The UFW is strongly preferred by the majority of farmworkers in the Salinas and San Joaquin Valleys where most of the fall elections will occur...

...Approximately 80 percent of California's farmworkers are Mexican nationals, another 10 percent are Mexican-Americans, and the final 10 percent are "Miscellaneous" (including Filipinos, Portuguese, Hindustani, Arabs, Blacks and Anglos...

...It will not be surprising if the UFW wins between 70 and 85 percent of the elections in these Valleys...

...Apple pickers in Watsonville were called out on strike by the UFW even though they were under Teamster contract, and asparagus workers in the Imperial Valley obtained wage increases on their Teamster contracts without the Teamsters even entering into the UFW-led negotiations...

...The Chavez union has not only been primarily responsible for the drastic improvement in wages and working conditions experienced by the farmworkers over the past decade, but it is also very Mexican in culture and geared to the needs and lifestyles of the average farmworker...

...Until now, for example, the preferences of the growers have determined whether their workers belonged to the Teamsters, United Farm Workers (UFW), or no union at all...

...If the boycott worried the grower more than the alleged radicalism of the UFW, then he signed with that union, but his neighbor might well be under a Teamster contract because of an inverted priority listing...

...The 20 percent wage increases will tempt many poor campesinos (peasants), especially when they know how the growers will resist doing business with the UFW...

...The Gallo election, for example, is likely to turn out to be very close because the company intentionally hired many Portuguese and Anglos to replace the UFW strikers back in 1973...

...A relatively heavy concentration of Filipino labor contractors and workers in the Delano area, along with a couple thousand Arabs from Yemen and many illegal aliens, also forecast some trouble for the UFW in that area...

...Cesar Chavez, for example, has turned his personal attention from the boycott to a 1,000-mile walk through farming communities of California, talking with farmworkers and warning them against deceptions of the growers and Teamsters in the coming elections...

...The Teamsters, never ones to get too involved with the farmworkers themselves, are renegotiating expiring contracts with more concern for the seasonal farmworkers who have until now been ignored by that union but who will determine most elections...

...Some Mexicans who continued to work despite the strike were harassed as "scabs," probably resulting in their alienation from the union, and a considerable percentage of Gallo workers are also said to be docile illegals who will vote as instructed by their foremen...

...Given the above confusion, it is obvious that scientific estimates of voting outcomes are impossible, but enough evidence is available to hazard some predictions...

...Suddenly the farmworkers are no longer merely a piece of the grower's property, and all parties are courting their votes...

...A third grower in the same general area might still be holding out against any form of unionism...

...Spanish is the first language in its field offices, special services are available for the poorly educated Mexican aliens, and Mexican holidays such as the Cinco de Mayo (May 5th, Mexican Independence Day) are unofficial union holidays...

...The aborted strike was intended to cloak the fact that the growers and Teamsters had already agreed to a large wage increase in an attempt to buy farmworker votes in the coming elections...

...When the strike failed, the new contract was announced without further ado...

...MILESTONE IN CALIFORNIA FARMWORKERS AND THEIR ELECTIONS After many decades of violence, strikes, injunctions, lawsuits, boycotts and rhetoric, California's farmworkers will finally have a say on union representation vis-a-vis their grower employers...