University of Virginia Library

Grape Pickers Strike
Gets SSOC Backing

By Stefan Lapatkiewicz
Cavalier Daily Staff Writer

Delano, California's
34-month-long grape pickers
strike is moving into Charlottesville.

The University unit of the
Southern Student Organizing
Committee, in conjunction with the
Virginia University Christian
Community and the Charlottesville
Human Relations Council, is
planning to further the aims of
striking California grape pickers by
appealing to local merchants not to
buy California grapes until the
demands of the strikers have been
met.

The Delano grape pickers first
went on strike against Giumarra
Corporation farms in November of
1965 over working conditions
disputes. Managers of the grape
corporation refused to allow its
workers - many of whom earn less
than $1,800 a year to organize a
union. After 17 months of striking,
Giumarra Corporation agreed to
allow a referendum to be held, and
the grape pickers voted
overwhelmingly to unionize and
formed the United Farm Workers
Organizing Committee.

Strike Again

Last August, at the beginning of
the harvest season, the Delano
grape pickers again struck, calling
for collective bargaining, a
minimum wage, and various fringe
benefits. Although 95 per cent of
the united farm workers' members
participated in the walkout, the
Giumarra Corporation refused to
bargain and replaced the striking
workers with strike-breakers, many
imported from Mexico. The
UFWOC was unable to force the
company to negotiate, since farm
workers are specifically excluded
from coverage by the National
Labor Relations Act.

Alleged physical attacks on
strikers at the grape ranches and an
injunction limiting picketing to one
man at each gate of the farms
reduced the strike's effect.

In October, 1967, the farm
workers' organization launched a
nationwide consumer boycott
against Giumarra table grapes, a
tactic that had earlier helped the
union win contracts from wine
grape growers in Delano. Giumarra
Corporation responded by
marketing its produce under
numerous brand names, and the
UFWOC countered by calling a
boycott against all California table
grapes.

California grape sales have
already been cut down by 25 per
cent, and the grape markets in New
York, Boston, Detroit and Chicago
are being closed down. Seeking to
boost sales, the California growers
are routing grapes into southern
states and smaller towns where the
boycott's effect have been weakest.

No Grapes

In order to prevent the growers
from making Charlottesville a
possible outlet for its re-routed
produce, the SSOC, Virginia
Christian Community, and Human
Relations Council plan to first
approach local merchants and urge
them to discontinue purchasing
California grapes and thereby
strengthen the strikers' cause in this
area.

In an interview yesterday,
Michael Russell, University
representative to the Virginia
Christian Community, identified
the three groups' immediate aims as
the need to "educate local people
as to why they should not buy
California grapes." Mr. Russell
noted, "One thing going for us is
that the AFL-CIO is 100 per cent
behind the grape pickers and can
therefore exert its pressure on local
workers."

Should they be unsuccessful in
convincing Charlottesville
merchants to join the boycott, the
three organizations plan to take
their case directly to the consumers
and urge them not to buy
California grapes at local markets.
Mr. Russell said that picketing
would be used at this point of the
boycott, if necessary.

Other plans of the groups'
efforts to extend the boycott
include setting up a silk-screening
center to produce red felt arm
bands imprinted with a black eagle
set against a white circle, the
symbol of the Delano grape pickers'
cause.