UFW wins key battle against Gallo wine

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20090416/ARTICLES/904169955?Title=UFW-wins-key-battle-against-Gallo

By Kevin McCallum
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Published: Thursday, April 16, 2009 at 1:33 p.m.
Last Modified: Thursday, April 16, 2009 at 1:33 p.m.

Nearly two years after it was voted out of E&J Gallo’s Sonoma County vineyards, the United Farm Workers union has won a key battle in its fight to continue representing nearly 300 vineyard workers.

An administrative law judge ruled last month that the July 2007 vote ousting the union from Gallo’s vineyards was unfair because Gallo failed to provide the union with an accurate list of its workers.

The case isn’t quite over. The veteran Gallo employee who has twice petitioned to oust the union, Roberto Parra, plans to appeal the decision by Monday’s deadline, said Will Collins, spokesman for the nonprofit group handling his case, the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation.

But the state’s Agricultural Labor Relations Board rarely overturns decisions by its administrative law judges, said Joe Wender, senior board counsel for the ALRB. It is unlikely to take any additional testimony or argument from attorneys in the case, he said.

Gallo does not plan to appeal the decision, spokeswoman Loree Stroup said.

If the decision stands, the vote to decertify the UFW would be thrown out and the union would continue to represent the Gallo workers, the largest block of workers it represents on the North Coast.

It would be a big boost for the UFW, which has seen its influence in the region wane in recent years.

FULL story at link.

[mitchtv]

1. It seems as though I have been boycotting Gallo

for 40 years NOW! Fuck 'm

[jwirr]

2. This sounds very familiar. I used to have a pin the said Boycott Gallo.