Produce Workers Vote for Year-Round Representation

Produce Workers Vote for Year-Round Representation

December 19, 2006

On December 5, 36 mechanics, technicians and parts employees with Taylor Farms of California became year-round Teamsters.

The majority of the workers were already members of Local 890 in Salinas, California, where they worked for seven months of the year. The employees are required by the company to travel to Yuma, Arizona, for the 5-month-long winter lettuce season, where they did not have Teamster representation.

"These workers would travel 500 miles and uproot their lives to work the winter in Yuma, where they had no grievance procedure and no contract protections," said Fritz Conle, organizer with Local 890. "They had union representation in Salinas, but when they got to Yuma it was payback time for the company. The company could do whatever it wanted."

The skilled laborers will now have the benefits and security of being Teamsters all year long.

"The workers recognized that they needed full representation. They saw the difference that being in a union makes," Conle said.