[GPSCC-chat] Fw: Sign the holiday card petition telling Gerawan to quit delaying and implement their workers' UFW contract

[John Thielking]

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: United Farm Workers (UFW) <ufw at ufw.org>
To: John Thielking <pagesincolor at yahoo.com> 
Sent: Saturday, December 7, 2013 8:36 AM
Subject: Sign the holiday card petition telling Gerawan to quit delaying and implement their workers' UFW contract
 





Sign the holiday card petition telling Gerawan to quit delaying and implement their workers' UFW contract
SIGN THE PETITION!
Petition Language:
Enough delays. Immediately implement the contract the State Mediator announced and the ALRB approved as a final board order. Gerawan farm workers have waited long enough! 


http://action.ufw.org/gerawanholidays 
Next week a delegation of dozens of Gerawan workers will deliver a holiday card signed by workers and a petition with thousands of signatures from supporters all over the world telling this giant fruit grower, "Enough delays. Immediately implement the contract the ALRB ordered. Gerawan farm workers have waited long enough." Won't you join them by signing their petition today?
 
Gerawan Farming Inc. is one of the world’s biggest fruit growers with at least 5,000 workers. Workers at Gerawan voted for the United Farm Workers but they have not yet benefited from a union contract. It's not from lack of trying. After the UFW and Gerawan were unable to reach agreement on the full contract, Gerawan was ordered in April by the state farm labor board (ALRB) to engage in mandatory mediation. This resulted in a 3-year contract with wage increases of 12.5% over the life of the contract, reduction of hours to qualify for bonuses, 4 paid holidays, and numerous worker protections. Gerawan employees and the negotiating committee were very excited on November 19th when the ALRB approved the mediator's report. By law, the contract immediately went into effect and Gerawan workers should be spending the holiday season working under a UFW contract. Among other things the contract gives them Christmas Day off as a new paid holiday.
 
The problem is Gerawan thinks they are above the law. So they are trying to delay the contract again. And the system is letting them slide despite the ALRB Regional Director’s finding that Gerawan helped orchestrate decertification efforts at its farm. The violations against Gerawan were so outrageous that the UFW turned in 1,410 pages of objections to the decertification election that included 96 declarations documenting the company involvement. (Click to see brief.)
 
Gerawan workers are tired of the delays. Can you show these workers you support them by signing their petition today? Let Gerawan know that the best holiday gift they can give their workers would be the implementation of their contract. 

http://action.ufw.org/gerawanholidays
After you take action, please ask your friends and family to take action too. You can send them an e-mail, post this campaign on your Facebook and/or Twitter page by clicking here or by going to http://action.ufw.org/page/share/gerawanholidays
Guadalupe Martinez, who is on the Negotiating Committee, tells us how even before the new contract was finalized, workers saw the immediate effect of Union negotiations. "Thanks to the negotiations we were able to reach an agreement of increasing our wages from $9 per hour to $10 per hour." She is pleased with the final results of the negotiations, telling us, "The result was a contract for 3 years with increases to our hourly wages to $10.25 first year, $10.75 second year and $11.25 the third year along with 4 holidays and everyone will need less hours now to qualify for the bonus. This will apply to direct hires and also to workers of the farm labor contractor."
Gerawan farm workers truly face a David vs. Goliath battle against a company that will keep spending funds and resources to delay the process and hope to intimidate workers into giving up. We assure you, no matter what, we will not back down. We plan to be there for these Gerawan workers and we can be, but we need your financial support today.

https://secure.ufw.org/gerawanlegal 
  

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