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Board urges Garawan Farming to implement contract and supports farm workers' representation
Summary
The Board of Supervisors unanimously adopted a resolution supporting Garawan farm workers' right to representation by the United Farm Workers and urging Garawan Farming Company to implement a state mediator's contract decision from 2013, supporters said the company has not complied with the mediator's order to implement wages and terms.
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors on March 31 adopted a resolution supporting Garawan farm workers’ right to representation by the United Farm Workers and urging Garawan Farming Company to implement the terms set by a state mediator’s decision, sponsor Supervisor David Campos said.
Why it matters: The resolution responds to a long‑running labor dispute in which workers say a mediator’s 2013 decision requires implementation of a contract covering wages and working conditions. Supporters framed the resolution as a vindication of workers’ rights and a call for the employer to follow state determinations.
Supervisor David Campos introduced the resolution, noting the date coincided with Cesar Chavez’s birthday. Campos said roughly 90 farm workers at Garawan had voted for UFW representation in a secret ballot and that the state‑appointed mediator subsequently issued a three‑year contract including retroactive wage increases and holiday compensation. "We're now looking at a quarter of a century… 25 years ago, when these workers voted to have representation… and still today, they have not been able to realize that agreement and to implement that agreement," Campos said.
Arturo Rodriguez, president of the United Farm Workers, addressed the board and urged the company to comply with the mediator’s 2013 decision. Rodriguez said Garawan Farming employs about 5,000 farm workers at peak and called on the company to “live by the state of California.” He said farm workers at Garawan currently make $11 an hour and under the mediator’s contract should be paid $11.25, and that unpaid wages measured over thousands of workers amount to millions of dollars.
The clerk took a roll call and the board adopted the resolution unanimously (recorded as nine ayes). Campos thanked workers in attendance and cosponsors of the item.
What’s next: The resolution urges Garawan Farming Company to implement the mediator’s decision; it does not itself compel compliance but registers the board’s position and directs city advocacy and public attention to the dispute.
