Although elections still command much of the spotlight, the UFW has to focus its very limited resources on getting negotiations underway. For example, at Coachella Growers (citrus), the UFW won the union election, but the company has harassed workers by stopping bus service and cutting back the work week. Workers must now get up at 4 a.m. if they wish to commute; otherwise they must live in the labor camp which is expensive and only accomodates men. Growers have said no to a UFW hiring hall, no to a grievance procedure, and no to UFW medical and pension plans.
Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company, in partnership with the Desert Valley Citrus Corporation, controls Coachella Growers, and thus directly contributes to the exploitation of the 450 citrus workers on the ranch. Irv Hirshenbaum, director of the New England UFW office, has asked supporters to apply pressure on Connecticut Mutual by demanding to know why the company is stalling negotiations at the workers' expense. "Job security, pension and medical benefits are not unreasonable proposals," Hirshenbaum says.
George Schwab, Connecticut Mutual's head of real estate and agricultural investment division admits that Connecticut Mutual never would have made the investment, given the reaction from UFW supporters across the nation. A delegation from Harvard, headed by Bernard Bell '78, will be visiting the Boston offices of Connecticut Mutual, Thursday, March 3, leaving from Quincy cafeteria at 1 p.m. The students will ask why the company refuses to give farmworkers the same rights guaranteed to other working people.
With no large strike fund to rely on, the UFW depends on a coalition of consumers and farmworkers to engage in delegations, boycotts, and strikes to contracts signed. Knowledge of the farmworkers' plight has compelled many people to support the UFW union efforts to bring about change. Close to 500 volunteer organizers are working for the union. Organizers receive the same benefits as Cesar Chavez and all members of the UFW staff--room, board, $5 a week, and transportation money in the area of work. They take with them a rare learning experience in practical skills which can be applied to many aspects of daily living and working. They also know the sense of making a difference in the lives of thousands of farmworkers families.
The farmworkers' struggle is not confined to grapes or to California. After California there are Yuma lemons, Texas melons, Florida sugar, and Michigan and New Jersey truck farms. "In our struggle, we never really lose," says Cesar Chavez. "We have our unity, our solidarity, our spirit."
Susan Redlich graduated last year from the School of Public Health. She spent the summer of '75 working as a volunteer for the UFW in New York.