UFW loses second local vineyard

<p>Workers at a prominent Russian River vineyard company voted overwhelmingly Thursday to oust the United Farm Workers, the second blow to the union's Sonoma County presence in two months.</p><p>Thirty-nine workers at Richard's Grove and Saralee's Vineyard Inc. in Windsor voted to reject the union that has represented them since 2002, while just six voted to keep the UFW.</p><p>Three votes were contested and uncounted in the total, said Antonio Barbosa, executive secretary of the state Agricultural Labor Relations Board, which conducted the election.</p><p>"They offer you the world, but what they can get you is different," said Lelo Martinez, a 21-year-old mechanic who repairs equipment used at the 500 acres of vineyards owned by Richard and Saralee Kunde.</p><p>The vote took place a week after a group of the company's 48 workers petitioned the ALRB to hold a decertification vote.</p><p>A similar election last month at Sonoma County vineyards owned by E&amp;J Gallo also resulted in a vote to oust the UFW, which represents 308 Gallo workers. The union is appealing that vote, claiming the company indirectly supported the anti-union campaign.</p><p>If both votes stand, the UFW would be left with a single vineyard contract in Sonoma County and two in Napa County covering an estimated 100 workers.</p><p>That would represent a dramatic reversal for the nation's largest farmworker union. Just two years ago, the UFW claimed 600 workers on the North Coast and aspirations to expand to 1,000.</p><p>But if the Gallo and Saralee's Vineyard contracts disappear, the only workers covered by the UFW would be the 46 at Santa Rosa's Balletto Vineyards.</p><p>Local and state UFW officials did not return calls for comment.</p><p>Voting areas are off-limits to the public and the media, but several workers contacted after the vote Thursday at the company's Slusser Road vineyards said they have no use for a union that collects their hard-earned money but provides little benefit in return.</p><p>"The 2 percent they take from our wages doesn't do us any good," Lucino Hernandez said as he sat in the bed of a pickup watching co-workers play soccer during a break.</p><p>Hernandez, a 47-year-old native of Michoac&amp;#xE1;n, Mexico, said he and his co-workers are treated well by the company, receiving health and dental insurance. The workers are currently covered by a 30-month contract that expires next summer.</p><p>But Saralee Kunde said workers were already receiving those benefits and more before the union arrived with promises of better pay, benefits and working conditions.</p><p>"They were sold a bill of goods to vote for it in the first place," she said.</p><p>Initial support for the union was triggered by fears among the workers that without union protection vineyards would outsource work to labor contractors, Kunde said. But that was never her intention, she said, and is not something she will do if the union leaves.</p><p>"The union told them that. Their scare tactics are unreal," she said.</p><p>Support for the union eroded quickly after the 2005 contract was signed and workers received only slight wage increases -- between 1 and 2 percent -- after the union's dues were subtracted, she said.</p><p>Starting wage was about $8.32 before the increases in the contract, Kunde said.</p><p>Several workers said they voted against the union because they resented the way union officials seemed to visit only when they wanted something, such as their votes.</p><p>Martinez, who has worked for the company for about eight months, said organizers visited him the day before the election at the Geyserville Fire Department, where he is a volunteer firefighter. He said he had never met anyone from the union before, and their efforts struck him as a transparent attempt to influence his vote.</p><p>"It was like, 'Let's bushwhack this guy and have him go our way,' " Martinez said.</p><p>One of the six who voted to keep the union was 26-year-old Angel Cornejo, who voted for the union in 2002 and feels loyal to it.</p><p>"I know the wages haven't gone up much," Cornejo said. "I have been supporting them this whole time, so I didn't think I should stop now."</p><p>Objections to the election must be filed by Thursday.</p><p>John Balletto said he does not know whether his workers are also planning to oust the union, which has represented workers at his farm since 1998.</p><p>Roberto Parra, the worker who spearheaded the decertification campaign at Gallo, said he had been in contact with Balletto's workers about organizing a similar effort there.</p><p>You can reach Staff Writer Kevin McCallum at 521-5207 or kevin.mccallum@pressdemocrat.com and Staff Writer Angelica Marin at 521-5241 or angelica.marin@pressdemocrat.com.</p>