Food Chain Radio Michael Olson

Urban Farming Agriculturalist

Decertifying the United Farm Workers UFW

Should government count the vote to decertify the UFW?

This Poll is closed

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NO

YES

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50%

50%

Guest:  Silvia Lopez, Farm Worker, Gerawan Farms

The great state of California is now a one-party state controlled, for the most, by its labor unions.

Though not among the most powerful of unions in terms of the amount of money it contributes to government, the United Farm Workers Union (UFW) is certainly among the state’s more popular for its advocacy of those who harvest the nation’s food.

Food Chain Radio Michael Olson hosts Silvia Lopez, Farm Worker: Should government count the vote to decertify the UFW?

Formed in a grape-worker strike in the mid-1960’s that blossomed into a nation-wide grape boycott, the UFW has come to represent a consensus that those who work the fields and harvest our food should be treated and paid fairly.  

Thus, it likely comes as a surprise for those of us in the city who eat the foods harvested by farmworkers, to learn they have voted to decertify the UFW. 

It certainly must have surprised other unions to hear of this threat to the UFW, which may well explain why California’s Agriculture Labor Relations Board has refused to count the farmworkers decertification vote.  The ALRB’s refusal to count the votes leads us to ask…

Should government count the vote to decertify the UFW? 

Tune in here, for the syndicated Food Chain Radio Show #960 Live on March 15, 2014 Saturday 9AM Pacific