Time To Take On Another Winery

We can now add the Giumarra Vineyards Corp., the world’s largest table grape grower with 4,000 peak season workers in Kern and Tulare counties, to our list of bad bad bad companies that we should not support.

The company has no respect for its workers, and two farm workers who died from extreme heat since last year labored at Giumarra.

But Giumarra workers have many other long-standing grievances. They are now engaged in the largest farm worker organizing drive since the 1970s.

Here are just some grievances Giumarra workers have voiced:

Workers packing grapes into lugs, or boxes, being forced to labor eight hours a day on their knees with no umbrellas to protect them against the sun. Nearly all other table grape growers supply tables and umbrellas so packers can work standing up in the shade.

Illegally requiring that newly-hired pickers labor without pay for several days, a week or sometimes as long as a month during a "probationary period."

Workers disciplined by being made to "take a seat" or endure a "time out" for hours or even a day because supervisors are displeased with how they pack or pick grapes.

Strict enforcement of quotas—picking a minimum number of boxes per hour or day regardless of the crop quality. Workers say carrillas, or speed-ups, constantly make them work faster and harder, even in extreme heat. Many don’t take legally guaranteed work or lunch breaks—or even time to drink water—out of fear they will be given time outs, suspended or fired for not making quotas.

Low pay. Workers now earn $7 an hour, up 25¢ in July because of UFW pressure. The last wage hike was in 1992 except for increases in the state minimum wage.

Workers complain about being illegally required to provide their own work tools.
During winter pruning, piece rates are set so low that workers sometimes don’t make the minimum wage.

Some workers say they must pay bribes to supervisors to keep jobs or work overtime.

Tell Giumarra Vineyards Corp. to let its grape workers vote in a free and fair election, without threats or intimidation. And if workers vote to become part of the United Farm Worker´s Union, tell Giumarra to quickly bargain in good faith for a union contract protecting workers from abuse.