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FARM LABOR

DISPUTE

Committee on Social

Development and

World Peace



Resolution on

FARM LABOR DISPUTE

Committee on Social Development

and World Peace

United States Catholic Conference

May 23, 1973

\ /atican II stated in the Constitution on

* the Church in the Modern World (par.

68 ):

Among the basic rights of the human

person is to be numbered the right of

freely founding unions for working

people. These should be able truly to

represent them and to contribute to

the organizing of economic life in the

right way. Included is the right of

freely taking part in the activity of

these unions without risk of reprisal.

The social injustices which plague the

nation's agricultural workers, and particu-

larly the migrants, are well established.

Major legislative efforts, federal and state,

will be required to provide to agricultural

workers the minimum labor standards now

provided for most industrial workers. Real

and lasting progress toward full participa-

Dsacldffled



tion in the American society can come,

however, only when agricultural workers

effectively organize their own trade union.

For these reasons we have been heart-

ened by the successes of the United Farm

Workers Union, AFL-CIO. In the last three

years contracts, particularly in California,

have indicated that unions of the workers'

choice have a chance of taking root in the

fields where much of the nation's food is

grown.

The UFWU progress has been hampered

by the lack of the legal protections which

were enjoyed by the great industrial unions

when they were beginning in the 1930's.

However, there has been progress. Some

of the California grower-employers have

come to realize that a stable labor-manage-

ment relationship can be built on collective

bargaining.

Today, crashing destructively into these

early hopeful developments has come the

raid on the small and struggling United

Farm Workers Union by leaders of the

nation's largest union, the International

Brotherhood of Teamsters. Making a com-

mon effort with the Teamsters, many grow-

ers in the table grape industry in California,

who have had contracts with the UFWU for

the past three years, have in recent weeks

signed contracts with the Teamsters. Cyni-

cally, this raiding has come just a few

months after the Supreme Court in Cali-

fornia, in a 6-1 decision, found that the

now-disputed lettuce contracts were ex-

ecuted through collusion of the lettuce

growers and the Teamsters without any

consultation with the workers.



This type of conduct on the part of the

Teamsters is in violation of all canons of

trade union ethics. The President of the

AFL-CIO, George Meany, has termed it

"positively disgraceful" and "union bust-

ing," the last the most derogatory term in

the trade union lexicon.

In these circumstances, we call on the

Teamsters Union and the growers to accept

the request of the United Farm Workers

Union to agree to a secret ballot, impar-

tially supervised election to determine

which union the farm workers prefer. The

Committee on Social Development and

World Peace of the United States Catholic

Conference agrees with the bishops of

California that the right of farm workers to

organize and join a legitimate organization

of their own choosing is the "dominant

moral issue" in this dispute.

Until and unless justice and peace can be

restored to the fields of California, we sup-

port and endorse the boycott of table

grapes and iceberg (head) lettuce. We urge

the purchase of table grapes and lettuce

only if they clearly carry the Aztec black

eagle label of the United Farm Workers

Union, AFL-CIO. We urge men of good

will to support this position in the name of

social justice.

Adopted by the Committee on Social Development

and World Peace of the United States Catholic

Conference on May 23, 1973.

1973

Publications Office

UNITED STATES CATHOLIC CONFERENCE

1312 Massachusetts Avenue N.W.

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