Datelines

...The fruit was recalled, and the California Department of Food and Agriculture ordered about ten million—one-third of the state's 1985 crop—destroyed...

...With mortgages and other debts exceeding $1 million, they agreed...

...Rocco owns much of the property, a large realty firm, movie theaters, and a hardware store...

...Now Charle Pearl is also out of a job...

...But a study released by the Pentagon itself says taxpayers in the Everett area will have to spend at least $56 million— and possibly double that—before they can welcome the new base...

...And Dayton closely resembles the picture of a classic company town...

...In the beginning they were ready to go quietly...

...These changes, charges the union, have caused many injuries...

...Goodman has barred him from entering the post office to carry out union business...

...For dozens of small farmers, the added financial burden could spell disaster...

...Ironically, some species that were of minor importance several decades ago have now become major pests because pesticides wiped out their natural predators...

...Increased demand for local government services is expected to outrun new tax revenues by almost $1 million a year, and absent Federal assistance, Everett residents will have to make up the difference...

...They treat the people like animals, worse than they treat the turkeys...

...Peter and Wanda Graber and their son Eric and his wife Lori farm in Washington County, Iowa...

...But "the national union isn't giving me the support I need," he says...

...Instead, it baited them with a series of thirty-day extensions...

...Incoming populations may demand added public services and facilities before the local tax resources are available to pay for them...

...He is a former president of the Central Missouri Labor Council and is well-known in the state's Democratic Party circles...

...But some people question whether there will be enough new tax revenues even in the long run...

...I'm carrying the load—a local president ought to get more help...

...Dick Brown (Dick Brown is a free-lance writer in Seattle...

...Straining with a wet knife to cut skins off turkey necks, standing knee-deep in blood and feathers, she often worked late into the night "until the last turkey come down the line...

...Pearl forced the issue by missing work to attend the meeting...

...They're striking without it having any bearing on any decisions by the company...

...The time is rapidly approaching when pesticides won't give farmers even fourteen days of relief from species that destroy their crops...

...Begun in September 1984 and livened up in recent months, it featured a radio campaign during the holidays asking consumers not to buy from Rocco...

...It's called self-liquidation," says Eric Graber...

...We worked our butts off to build this and then sell it," says Peter Graber, "and we didn't even know they had already closed us out...

...But Congress may be reluctant to offer local subsidies when the military budget is under attack...

...The union maintains that Rocco was behind it, and the National Labor Relations Board's regional director ruled in March 1985 that the company had bribed workers to vote out the union...

...As far as we're concerned," says personnel manager Robert Wolfe, "the union doesn't exist...

...They got back their farm machinery and were awarded payments to cover damage, expenses, and depreciation on equipment that rusted while stored during seizure...

...Formed in 1984 with Pearl as co-founder, this group seeks a political solution to the farm crisis by allying organized labor with the family farmers who now face extinction...

...It kills pests quickly but may also wipe out their natural enemies, so the crop hosts a bigger population of pests later on...

...But the PCA, with $40 billion in outstanding farm loans, may eventually be held at least partially responsible for the economic ruin of its customers...

...Still, Everett officials confidently predict a Navy-inspired boom...

...Many people have come to us and told us they're sorry they signed the petition because the company has reneged on its promises," says Dotty Alton...

...It refuses to recognize the strikers or the union...

...Albert L. Huebner (Albert L. Huebner is a freelance writer in Canoga Park, California...

...The Production Credit Association (PCA), a large farm credit group, notified them of their failure to meet requirements on their loan...

...Rocco employs 800 production-line workers, 300 of them hired back from the group that originally struck the plant...

...Marcus J. Albrecht (Marcus J. Albrecht is a labor activist in St...

...was a jingle mimicking a popular refrain with a new twist: "Turkey Busters...

...Cordero's chief allies are green lacewings—small, delicate-looking flying insects with a big appetite for soft-bodied bugs—and a tiny wasp that feeds on moth eggs...

...But the local office ignored the approval, failing to inform the Grabers...

...Unless large numbers of farmers can make the transition that Ignacio Cordero has, our food supply will be threatened as never before...

...Cordero, who grows 600 acres of melons on his farm in Riverside County, was certain his harvest would be approved for sale...

...His termination has been certified for national arbitration...

...If the national American Postal Workers Union president decides to have a union representative serve on the Farm Labor Alliance, who is the local postmaster to veto that decision...

...When the Grabers sued the agency, they were able to show they had not known they were in default, and they won their case...

...So Pearl asked for leave to attend the Alliance meeting— and Columbia Postmaster John C. Goodman denied his request...

...You'll find in Kitsap County, as in most military areas, it's local taxpayers who carry the burden," says Shayn Alire, county urban planner...

...The union has also filed a $6 million Federal suit against the company for bribery and racketeering...

...But, warns the Pentagon report: "While in the long run economic benefits from the new...

...Hundreds of people in California, other Western states, and Canada became ill last July after eating aldicarb-con-taminated melons...

...The fight is between Rocco, a huge turkey processing conglomerate that bought Marval in 1981, and Local 400 of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, which represented the workers there for more than twenty years...

...When Rocco Enterprises took over from Marval, it cut the work force by a fifth and speeded up production...

...But Goodman, says Pearl, is "the most anti-union postmaster I have run into in my eighteen years of postal service...

...Who ya gonna call...

...They have to work like a Charlie Chaplin movie," jokes Dotty Alton, a striker who was a union shop steward, "But no matter how bad a person is hurting, they won't take them off the lines...

...Since October 1984, the union has been barred from company property: The company announced that a majority of workers had signed a petition to decertify the union...

...It not only processes the turkeys but also raises the birds and owns the feedmills...

...About 500 workers walked off the job in June 1984...

...Then the PCA seized the Grabers' remaining machinery and cattle...

...From April until October the Grabers were technically in default, but they were not notified...

...Occasionally Cordero's crops are so overwhelmed with pests that beneficial insects can't control them, and he must resort to pesticides or lose the crop...

...The Grabers were encouraged to take on rental properties, build confinements, and adopt marketing strategies suggested by PCA loan officers...

...Goodman fired him...

...Cordero has been replacing the pesticides with beneficial insects that consume the pests that attack his crop...

...A Federal subsidy of $114 million for capital improvements in nearby Kitsap County, Washington, home of the Navy's Trident submarine base, hasn't kept the base from being a drain on local coffers...

...The presiding judge has set the damage award aside, so they will have to go back to court to collect...

...Workers complain of back problems, tendonitis, and cramps, and the union claims there are scores of documented and latent cases of Carpal Tunnel's Syndrome...

...Cordero's rejection of aldicarb in favor of biological pest control kept him safe...

...Funding for the expanded Navy and the military strategy that requires new ports like Everett is already in trouble...

...Yet, such researchers as McMurtry find themselves strapped for funds...

...Workers protest not low wages but plant conditions they term "inhumane" and a host of other grievances over operating policies...

...Meanwhile, the strikers continue to stand outside the plant with signs—or, on freezing cold days, to sit in their cars with the signs...

...so long as the community isn't left to pick up the $56 or $57 million...

...Past practice suggested such an infraction might draw a "warning letter," possibly followed by a short-term suspension of a week to a month...

...This has happened countless times on countless farms...

...He was fired last October for failing to report for work—going instead to St...

...But pesticides still command the allegiance of many farmers...

...What's worse, the pesticide companies spend big money to reinforce the growers' anxieties...

...With the company refusing to talk, the union is doing what it can to embarrass Rocco to the bargaining table...

...Nonetheless, the prospect of an economic boom has proved seductive...

...A lot of growers think that if they put on a chemical they'll get immediate results, whereas if they use a natural enemy they're not sure what will happen," says James McMurtry, head of the division of biological control in the entomology department at the University of California, Riverside...

...A Farm Family Fights Back WASHINGTON COUNTY, IOWA The letter arrived December 22, 1984, and it was the final straw for the members of the Graber family...

...People are mistaken if they think having the Navy in town is just like having a new industry, says Steve Burr, chairman of the Port Gardner Information League, a citizens' group that opposes the base...

...During the trial, evidence of much PCA mismanagement emerged, and the result may be a $2 million judgment in the Grabers' favor and support for similar suits against the PCA across the country...

...At twenty-three, with two children to raise, Rose is now a victim of Carpal Tunnel's Syndrome, a crippling nerve disease brought on by repetitive movements of the joints, that causes numbness and swelling...

...And many food crops are plagued by insects whose predators are still unknown...

...Pearl's troubles began when Moe Biller, the president of the American Postal Workers Union, appointed Pearl official union representative to the Farm Labor Alliance...

...They said the $300 million naval station would bring thousands of new jobs, a much-needed economic boost, and new tax revenues...

...An agreement between the union and the Postal Service provides that a local worker can be excused from work, without pay, for union activities and community service upon request of the national...

...The PCA, they say, eased them into trouble, extending ever-increasing lines of credit and asserting more and more control over the management of their farm...

...This use of "good insects" to get rid of the "bad insects" eliminates the kind of pesticide residue that cost California's watermelon growers enormous financial losses in 1985...

...But it has not been scheduled yet...

...Navy had picked their city to be the home port for a new thirteen-ship battle group led by the aircraft carrier U.S.S...

...Pearl claims the termination is excessive and punitive retaliation...

...Cases like hers are what prompted a strike here that has lasted nearly two years...

...But taxpayers in Everett, Washington, a port town of 56,000 just north of Seattle, are finding that this kind of economic gain does not come cheap...

...Louis for a three-day meeting of the Farm Labor Alliance...

...In attempts to cut absenteeism, Rocco also got strict about sick leave, break periods, and even trips to the bathroom...

...thirty-three still walk a picket line outside the plant...

...Orin Fjeran, the city's home-porting coordinator, says the base will "be good economically for Snohomish County and the state of Washington...

...Fighting Bugs with Bugs RIVERSIDE COUNTY, CALIFORNIA Ignacio Cordero wasn't worried when state investigators showed up to test his watermelons for traces of the pesticide aldicarb...

...facility may show a positive balance, the short run can present a different picture...

...Once the base opens in 1989, Everett can expect new tax revenues and at least 11,000 new jobs...

...There is a letter in our file saying [the PCA] figured we would declare bankruptcy then," says Lori Graber...

...Instead, Charle Pearl sits and waits...

...At $5.60 an hour, in the economically depressed Shenandoah Valley, she says, "If you want to make the money it's the place you want to work...

...Boom or Bust with the Navy EVERETT, WASHINGTON Members of Congress love to boast of the good they do for the local economy when they persuade the Pentagon to locate a new base in the home district...

...She has also been fired, having received a phone call informing her that "you have been terminated for medical reasons...

...And because of PCA's mismanagement of their affairs, the Grabers' debt of $640,000 was canceled...

...He says the base not only will mean higher taxes but will also forever change the character of the city...

...The Grabers' next renewal expired in January 1984...

...The jury also ordered the PCA to pay the family $1.2 million in damages...

...But the PCA had made too many mistakes...

...Francesca Lyman (Francesca Lyman is a freelance writer based in Washington, D.C...

...Even with impact aid the Navy base may burden Everett's taxpayers...

...Most crop pests are resistant to some pesticides and a few important offenders are resistant to all of them...

...The national union should put everything else aside and deal with this issue squarely...

...William Mueller (William Mueller teaches journalism at the University of Iowa...

...Pearl is president of Local 136 of the Postal Workers Union in Columbia, Missouri, a post he has held for more than a decade...

...But this time the PCA got caught mishandling affairs...

...Cordero is familiar with the cycle: "I used to have a plane come in and spray all over my fields, and boom—fourteen days later I got the same problems...

...It pits an aggressive union, the largest in the AFL-CIO, against an avowedly anti-union conglomerate in a politically conservative area...

...In an advisory election Everett voters favored the base by a margin of two to one...

...Beneficial insects, however, are less effective on crops infested with several different kinds of pests...

...One of the state's major employers, Rocco is a multinational firm, the world's largest turkey processor, producing 200 million pounds a year...

...He says the cost of the beneficial insects, including the labor required to spread them throughout his crop, is about $ 16 an acre, a mere fraction of the $80 to $100 an acre that pesticides cost...

...In fact, however, the PCA applied the payments to reduction of their accumulated interest...

...The people who live here now aren't going to have their quality of life enhanced," he says...

...Pearl had expected quick and effective support from his union...

...Louis...

...He and his colleagues at UC-Riverside "are the largest group of people devoted to the study of biological controls in the country, and probably the world," he says, yet "our budget from the state hasn't changed in fifteen years...

...In April, the regional PCA office approved their line of credit...

...He had been steadily reducing his use of pesticides for several years, and he hadn't used aldicarb at all...

...The family gave up 1,400 acres of rented land, laid off their hired hand, and sold excess machinery, 5,000 hogs, and most of their cattle in return for PCA's verbal assurance that it would stand by the owners for at least another year...

...If Congress doesn't come up with the money, says Fjeran, Everett residents "would have a different attitude" toward becoming a Navy town...

...Inside, a backlash against the company is growing...

...Its prime tactic is a nationwide boycott of the company's turkey products, including the Armour and Shop-Rite labels...

...The controversy now turns on the legality of that petition...

...Chemical spraying often boomerangs...

...Instead, the family sued the PCA...

...The practice of PCA involvement in management of the farms the Association finances has become common...

...Postmaster to Union Chief: You're Fired COLUMBIA, MISSOURI For twenty-five years, Charle Pearl has preached the gospel of trade unionism, and he has done it with flair, insight, and vision...

...To my knowledge, this is the first time a local postmaster has failed to honor the request of the national president...

...His method, used by a slowly increasing number of farmers, is cheaper than spraying with chemicals...

...During that time they were making large payments, assuming the PCA was applying the money to reduction of their principal—their loan agreement called for only one interest payment per year...

...Members of Washington's Congressional delegation will try to get "impact dollars"— Federal funds to lessen the burden on local taxpayers...

...The money will go for roads, schools, municipal buildings, and other capital improvements needed to accommodate the growth it will bring...

...Nimitz...

...Everett's mayor and other officials cheered the news that the U.S...

...Then the PCA abandoned them...

...It began for the Grabers in 1977 and culminated in 1983, when the lender stalled on renewal of their loan and ordered them to sell down their assets...