SEPTEMBER 2007: AROUND THE STATE
Union pact doesn’t end debate
BOARDMAN
Oregon’s largest dairy farm has struck a
collective-bargaining deal with United Farm Workers, marking
the state’s first large-scale farm unionization. The
three-year agreement for the 250 dairy workers at Threemile
Canyon Farms includes a 7.5% salary increase over three years,
family medical benefits, a pension plan and double the previous
vacation time, according to Erik Nicholson, director of the
guest worker program at UFW.
Tim Bernasek of the Oregon Farm Bureau says the Threemile deal
raises more questions than answers for Oregon’s 150,000
agriculture workers. “It doesn’t get at the central
issue,” says Bernasek.
Like most states, Oregon has no regulations governing the
process of unionizing farms. The agreement marks a historic
deal — but for Threemile only, according to Len
Bergstein, spokesman for the farm, which is in Boardman and
produces 160,000 gallons of milk every day. “Nothing has
been solved for the rest of agriculture.”
Threemile and UFW arrived at the deal in mid-July after
weathering four years of negotiations. UFW began unionizing
efforts in 2003 when dairy workers cited poor working
conditions and low pay.
During negotiations, UFW went to some of Threemile’s
clients including the Tillamook County Creamery Association,
which buys two-thirds of Threemile’s milk, urging them to
help grease the negotiation process.
The farm bureau’s Bernasek claims the UFW went a
“backwards” route by approaching the farm’s
customers rather than “winning the hearts and minds of
the workers” to gain union recognition and settle a
collective-bargaining agreement.
A system without rules stating the rights of farm workers or
union protocol for organizing farms is “ripe for
intimidation,” Bergstein says. “We’re in the
wild, wild West.”
EUNICE LEE
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