Word: digiorgio
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Last September the National Farm Workers Association, newest in a long string of weak, consistently unsuccessful farm unions, called a strike against several Delano grape growers, among them the giant companies Schenley and DiGiorgio. There was nothing new in that. Strikes had been called before in the Central Valley, several in the thirties, and more recently in Borrego Springs and nearby Bakersfield. But none of these previous strikes had been long-lived. Some had been violent, but all had ended with the farm worker in at least as bad shape as before...
Immediately following the Schenley victory, the NFWA began to work on the DiGiorgio Company, traditionally one of the most voluble opponents of farm worker unionization in the Valley. Picketing began, and once again stores were asked to take Delano products off their shelves, this time S&W products and Treesweet Juices...
...surprise move early this summer, DiGiorgio announced that it would agree to a representation election among its employees to decide the question of union representation fairly and finally. It was unclear why DiGiorgio management would agree to this, the first representation election ever held among farmworkers, when relatively little pressure had yet been put on them. At just this time, however, the Teamsters' newly formed agricultural union announced its intention of challenging the NFWA in the election for the right to represent the campesions. Four Teamster panelled trucks appeared outside Delano's single swanky hotel, and the Teamsters opened...
NFWA officials thought that DiGiorgio, seeing unionization as inevitable, had invited the Teamsters into the fray in hopes that the tempting dues returns would induce the Teamsters into driving an easier bargain than the NFWA. In fact, while the NFWA demanded $1.75 per hour, the Teamsters were asking for only $1.40 per hour, and were offering a no-strike-in-harvest-time guarantee...
...June 24, DiGiorgio called in representatives from both unions. It was decided that the date and conditions of the election would be set at a later meeting. However, on the next day, DiGiorgio called a press conference and announced that the election would be held in four days, on DiGiorgio property, with DiGiorgio appointed observers, and with DiGiogrio determining who would be eligible to vote...