UFW Cheers End of Dispute

United Farm Workers leaders pledged Thursday to help rebuild business at the embattled Pictsweet Mushroom Farm following the union’s formal announcement of the end of a long-running labor dispute at the Ventura plant.

After 17 years of fighting for a union contract, Pictsweet workers last week won a three-year pact that will bring higher wages, better job security and a company-paid medical plan to the plant’s 300 employees.

The contract was the first put into place under the state’s new mandatory mediation law, adopted last year to allow agricultural workers or employers to seek mediation after farm labor negotiations reach an impasse.

The agreement, which is retroactive to Jan. 1, ends a fight between the mushroom grower and the farmworkers union, a clash fueled in recent years by a nationwide boycott of Pictsweet products that cut deeply into production and drove away some of the company’s most valuable customers.

At the UFW’s Oxnard office Thursday -- where Pictsweet workers gathered to celebrate their new contract with chants of “Si se puede! Si se puede!” (“Yes we can!”) -- union leaders said they would now focus on winning back customers and retailers chased off by the four-year boycott.

“This victory is a testament to the workers’ resolve and sacrifice,” said UFW Secretary-Treasurer Tanis Ybarra, flanked by workers wielding red-and-black flags emblazoned with the UFW’s Aztec eagle.

“Now we have to begin to pass the word that it’s OK to buy Pictsweet mushrooms,” he said. “Let’s begin to build this company up again.”

The UFW first won a contract at the Ventura mushroom farm in 1975 in one of the first elections held under the Agricultural Labor Relations Act, but lost the agreement in 1987 when Tennessee-based United Foods Inc. bought the farm.

UFW officials said they had tried a number of times since then to get a new contract, escalating the effort in 2000 with the nationwide boycott. Response to the boycott cut the plant’s production by as much as half, with the company losing up to 9 million pounds a year in mushroom orders. But it also hit workers hard, forcing layoffs and resulting in fewer hours for the largely Latino workforce.

Plant manager Ruben Franco said he was glad to finally get back to business as usual. “I think it’s a good thing and fair for everybody,” Franco said. “If the boycott is going to go away, it will mean success for the workers and success for us.”

The union plans to spread the news about the end of the boycott by contacting supporters through the mail and via e-mail alerts. The UFW’s website also features Pictsweet mushrooms as the union’s label of the month.

Workers talked Thursday about support they received from the public, noting how community members had marched on the company to demand a contract, provided meals for workers struggling to make ends meet and bought Christmas gifts for children of Pictsweet employees.

“There were times our spirits were low, times we were ready to throw in the towel,” mushroom picker Jose Luis Luna told community members who showed up for Thursday’s celebration. “This contract may be forgotten soon. But what you did for us will always be in our hearts.”