Word: ferrara
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...Rich corporations and conglomerates are only a very small part of the agricultural industry." This statement is true for the industry as a whole. But Mr. Ferrara's implication that it holds for growers whose workers the UFW is organizing is incorrect and misleading. Corporate farms in California account for 90% of the melon crop and 30% of the citrus crop, two of the main areas of UFW activity. Two corporations control over a third of the nation's production of leafy green vegetables, another key area of UFW organizing. (National, 6/15/71). And Gallo wine, currently the main target...
...farmworkers do not support Chavez and his strikes." As evidence of this "fact" Mr. Ferrara cites several positions and a survey of "71 non-union grape pickers." Unfortunately, there is no way of saying exactly how extensive support for the union is. The UFW has called for elections to determine what the workers want. But the growers and the Teamsters have consistently refused, bitterly opposing state and federal laws that would require union elections...
...Chavez's strike was a complete hoax." Here Mr. Ferrara cites as evidence the testimony of one state official. But according to L.A. Times reporters, the UFW strikes have had overwhelming support from the workers. They reported that in 1973, over 90% of the grape workers in the Coachella Valley struck, despite the best efforts of the growers and the Teamsters. And Inter-Harvest, California's largest lettuce grower, was forced to admit, "The Teamsters have our contracts, but the UFW has our workers." (Nation, 9/3/73...
There is one final attack on the UFW implicit in Mr. Ferrara's article which should not go unanswered. Mr. Ferrara repeatedly refers to the UFW as "Chavez." He speaks of "Chavez" getting control of workers, of "Chavez's strike," of workers not supporting "Chavez." There is the constant implication that the union is controlled and manipulated by one man. This is the hardest kind of attack to rebut, because it is never even stated explicitly, much less documented. But if Mr. Ferrara thinks that the UFW is undemocratically run, if he thinks that the election of Chavez...
...DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE STATISTICS: It is very easy to play with numbers as Ferrara has proven. He uses numbers of a national survey to account for a problem which is Californian in nature: the boycott of scab grapes, Gallo wines and iceberg lettuce. According to the same source (U.S. Dept. of Ag.) there are well over 200,000 farm workers in California (1967, latest statistics available). Of these 1/3 are migrants. In 1968, the average hourly wage in California for a farm worker was $1.75 per hour. This included permanent and seasonal workers. BUT, farm workers in the table...