Gerawan farm workers need your help. The state just issued a scathing ruling citing widespread forgeries and illegal Gerawan conduct. WHAT YOU CAN DO: 1. Sign the petition! Petition language: Enough delays. Immediately implement the contract the State Mediator will announce. Gerawan farm workers have waited long enough. http://action.ufw.org/gerawanpetition 2. Make a donation  and help us fight Gerawan's high-priced legal team. https://secure.ufw.org/gerawan 3. If you have already signed thispetition and/or made a donationplease forward this e-mail to friends and family. Gerawan farm workers face a David vs. Goliath battle.Gerawan Farming Inc. is one of the world's largest fruit growers with about 6,000 workers. Workers voted for the United Farm Workers and have tried negotiating with the company without success. Now, thanks to a law that supporters like you helped us pass, the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board has assigned a neutral mediator to resolve issues of disagreement so workers can have what they voted for: a union contract. You can help them by signing their petition today and/or by making a donation to help us fight the expensive legal battle Gerawan has forced us to assume. Gerawan has engaged three separate law firms and an army of lawyers to keep its workers from their goal. Our legal team has been hard at work, winning decision after decision against Gerawan's high-priced lawyers. A basic principle of state and national labor law makes it patently illegal for a company to play ANY role whatsoever in a bid to decertify, or get rid, of its workers' union. Only workers can make that decision. But on Wednesday, the state Agricultural Labor Relations Board dismissed a petition to decertify the UFW at Gerawan. A blistering 12-page dismissal notice documented Gerawan's illegal company circulation and support for the drive to get rid of the union and found widespread forgeries of signatures on the decertification petition.  This came after a Superior Court judge issued an injunction against Gerawan, ordering it to refrain from such illegal conduct. And even with Gerawan's unlawful practices, there were not enough valid signatures to call for an election...therefore showing that the UFW continues to enjoy overwhelming  support of the workers. Here are highlights from the 12-page ALRB decision: The ALRB stated, "Our investigation has revealed that there has been significant unlawful assistance by [Gerawan] in the circulation of the petition, by gathering signatures for the petition and by providing other material assistance to employees in the decertification process.   The ALRB ruling recognized, "When an employer has unlawfully instigated or assisted workers in a decertification campaign, it has interfered with its employees' free exercise of their rights... "   "Furthermore, an attorney who represents two of Gerawan's farm labor contractors [represented the petitioner]. "This was found to be unlawful by the ALRB: "In sum, our investigation has found that Gerawan has directly assisted the Petitioner and others in the decertification effort by providing legal assistance."   And then there was forgery and fraud: Workers whose names appeared on the petition and were interviewed by state investigators said they refused to sign the petition, weren't asked to sign it or never signed it. Other findings from the ALRB included the following: "The submission of a large number of forged signatures...including seven pages of forged signatures submitted [to the ALRB]...The names on each page were printed in the exact same handwriting...all 88 names on these pages were written down in alphabetical order." In total, ALRB found "compelling evidence of the submission of 100 falsified signatures" and concluded that "the forgeries may have been more widespread" than the agency's brief investigation uncovered. "The existence of so many forged signatures identified across different crews, [farm labor] contractors and time periods" mean the petition does not have enough valid signatures to trigger a decertification election, the ALRB concluded.   The full 12 page dismissal notice can be seen at: http://www.ufw.org/pdf/92513DismissalLetter.pdf After the state of California recently issued a formal complaint (amounting to an indictment) against Gerawan for actively supporting the decertification, after a Fresno County Superior Court judge issued an order for the giant company to "cease and desist" from breaking the law and after the ALRB threw out the decertification petition, Gerawan is still fighting its workers' desire to enjoy union protections. Gerawan's big spending on PR and legal campaigns against its own workers is forcing the UFW to wage legal battles to defend the them. We are already making a difference. The UFW and the 25-member union negotiating committee selected by Gerawan's workers negotiated wage increases for all Gerawan workers of between $1 to $2.50 an hour that have already been implemented. General labor workers' pay went from  $9 to $10 an hour. Workers are still fighting to win other benefits and protections they deserve through a union contract. Can you help the Gerawan workers fight back by: 1. Signing the Gerawan workers' petition telling their company to implement the contract finalized by the neutral state mediator. Workers plan to hand this petition to the company once the mediator's decision is announced. http://action.ufw.org/gerawanpetition 2. Making a donation to help us fight Gerawan's high-priced legal team. https://secure.ufw.org/gerawan 3. If you have already signed this petition and/or made a donation please forward this email to friends and family. Thank you! After you take action, please ask your friends and family to take action too. You can send them an e-mail, post this campaign on your Facebook and/or Twitter page by clicking here or by going to http://action.ufw.org/page/share/gerawanpetition

Don't want to pay by credit card? Prefer to pay by check? No problem. Please print out this page and fill out the form. Then mail in your check to: United Farm Workers, "Gerawan Campaign- Internet", P.O. Box 62, Keene, CA, 93531. OUR E-MAIL ADDRESS HAS CHANGED. Please add our new email ufw@ufw.org to your safelist/address book so that our messages don’t get trapped in your spam filter. If you have questions about how to do this, drop us an e-mail. Check out our website at: www.ufw.org and keep up with the latest news. Check out the UFW's Social Networking pages. Click to visit our Facebook, YouTube, Twitter pages. Become our "friend" and follow us. If you received this message from a friend, you can sign up for the UFW List Serve. If you want to change your mailing address and/or phone number click here If you want to receive our alerts at a different e-mail address, send an e-mail to ufw@ufw.org Privacy Policy To unsubscribe, go to: http://action.ufw.org/unsubscribe This email was sent to redperuenutah@gmail.com. United Farm Workers,  P.O. Box 62, Keene, CA 93531, http://www.ufw.org

Maclovia Perez
801-833-2793
Fundadora,Directora General Red de Peruanos en Utah*USA*
E-mail:redperuenutah@gmail.com
http://redperuenutah.blogspot.com
Corresponsal Red Democratica del Peru
(1998-2011..)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/eleccion
Por una política exterior democrática en el Perú