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PANUPS: Strawberry Workers
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P A N U P S
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Pesticide Action Network
North America
Updates Service
http://www.panna.org/panna/
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March 28, 1997
Strawberry Workers Organize
On March 26, 1997, the United Farm Workers (UFW) with the
support of a coalition of environmental groups took legal
action to protect thousands of farmworkers from the fungicide
captan. The UFW filed notices under California's Proposition
65 charging that strawberry growers have failed to warn
workers about the hazards of laboring in fields treated with
the widely-used fungicide, a known carcinogen that has also
been linked to birth defects. Strawberry workers have signed
sworn affidavits saying they were not warned about the
dangers of captan as required under Proposition 65. The
proposition, a citizen-sponsored ballot initiative
overwhelmingly approved by California voters, requires that
the public (including workers) must be warned about exposure
to toxic chemicals known to cause cancer, birth defects or
other reproductive harm. Under Proposition 65, a judge can
order penalties of as much as $2,500 per violation per
worker.
In addition, the UFW has petitioned the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency to reconsider the re-entry period for
workers in fields where captan has been applied. The UFW
maintains that in 1994, in response to a request from an
industry group representing the manufacturers of captan, the
EPA changed the four-day re-entry interval to allow a special
24 hour re-entry interval for strawberry harvesting and
included no provision for protection of strawberry workers.
For all other crops sprayed with captan, EPA permits re-entry
after 48 hours, but only if extensive protective equipment is
provided. The change in strawberry re-entry requirements was
made without public notice or opportunities for input by
affected workers or the public. The UFW petition states that
the decision was based on a flawed analysis that
significantly underestimated the cancer risks posed to
strawberry harvesters. They ask for the EPA to immediately
re-evaluate the re-entry interval and provide for public
notice and comment before restricted re-entry intervals are
changed in the future.
The UFW is currently working to organize the estimated 12,000
workers in the Watsonville-Salinas area, where two-thirds of
the strawberries in California are grown. In September 1996,
over 7,000 strawberry workers and their supporters marched
through the streets of Watsonville, California, in support of
the UFW. The march and rally was the kickoff of a nationwide
effort to win public support for strawberry workers. As part
of the campaign, union supporters in over 50 U.S. cities will
ask supermarket managers to tell the California strawberry
industry that they support better conditions for workers.
UFW officials are not calling for a boycott of strawberries;
instead, they are asking consumers and supermarkets to sign
pledges supporting workers' rights. UFW hopes that these
pledges in conjunction with the union's organizing effort
will help convince industry officials to negotiate and sign
contracts when the union wins elections to represent
strawberry workers.
Strawberry workers in California are fighting for a living
wage, protection from arbitrary firings, clean drinking water
and bathrooms in the fields, health insurance and an end to
sexual harassment. For the approximately 20,000 strawberry
workers in the state, the average wage is about US$8,000 a
year, and most have not received a significant raise in the
past ten years. Low pay means that workers must crowd into
small, expensive apartments or live in cars, shacks and
sometimes even caves or fields.
The UFW has called for a second march on Sunday, April 13,
1997, in Watsonville, California. The union is estimating a
turnout of approximately 20,000 in support of the strawberry
workers. According to the UFW, the march will force the
industry to hear the workers' calls for basic human, social
and economic justice.
Contact: The Strawberry Workers Campaign in Los Angeles (213)
387-1974; San Francisco (415) 398-7152; non-California (1-
888) 235-2466; and United Farm Workers of America, AFL-CIO,
La Paz, Keene, CA 93531; phone (805) 822-5571.
Sources: The New York Times, July 3, 1996; San Jose Mercury
News, September 16, 1996; Santa Cruz Sentinel, August 15,
1996; UFW press release, March 26, 1997; San Francisco
Chronicle, March 27, 1997.
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