UFW-Grower Pact Prevents Strike : Labor: Tentative agreement between union and Muranaka Farms would lead to the first pay hike in four years for workers.

A promise of pay raises for workers at Muranaka Farms has averted a potentially ruinous strike and given a much needed boost to the beleaguered farm workers union.

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While the tentative agreement reached this week covers only a fraction of the workers’ demands, union representatives said Friday that a strike seems unlikely if progress continues.

“We could still go on strike if everything falls apart,” said Mario Brito, the regional manager for the United Farm Workers, which represents the workers. “This is just a tentative agreement, but it looks like a strike won’t be necessary.”

If the two sides sign a contract, it will be one of only three existing farm labor contracts in the county. And it could mean the first pay hike in four years for workers at the farm near Moorpark.

Muranaka officials characterized the latest development not so much as a tentative agreement but as the union’s acceptance of a company offer for pay hikes.

“We’ve made offers at every single meeting,” said company President Harry Muranaka. “I think this just amounts to an acceptance of some of the terms we offered. But I would agree that we are more optimistic now that something can be worked out than after any other meeting.”

The company offered to raise the salaries of its 150 field hands and packinghouse workers from 5% to 9% for the first year of a three-year contract, Brito said. Workers make from $12,000 to $14,000 harvesting and packing such crops as parsley, cilantro, and leeks on about 450 acres the company owns.

Frustrated by two months of what they say had been fruitless negotiations, workers said they would go on strike this week unless the company made a satisfactory offer. A meeting Tuesday with company officials and members of a workers’ negotiating team went smoothly, Brito said, and the two sides were able to outline the tentative agreement.

“It’s a fairly decent amount, but it’s just for the first year,” Brito said.

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Workers have been without a contract since 1992, and have not had a raise since 1990. Now they want their pay increase to match the changes in the cost of living since that time, and they want their salaries to continue to keep pace with inflation, Brito said.

“We want some guarantees about the remaining two years,” he said.

The union’s vehemence in the Muranaka negotiations is part of a nationwide strategy by the United Farm Workers to reinvigorate its ranks, Brito said. Once a stronghold of support, union membership in Ventura County dropped from 4,000 in the early 1980s to 500 this year.

The union is pushing for health benefits for workers and attempting to persuade the company to give workers more of a voice in management decisions.

“We don’t want the company to give over control of the day-to-day operations,” he said. “We just want to be involved on some level that really just guarantees the life of the company. Just look at Ford (Motor Co.). Ever since they involved workers in the management of their factories they have been profitable.”

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Muranaka Farms has struggled through some difficult financial times over the last 10 years. The company has had to scale back its Moorpark operation, reducing the number of acres planted from a peak of 800 acres in the late 1980s to about 450 acres this year. During the same period the company has used an increasing number of acres in Mexico, going from 200 in the early 1980s to about 2,500 this year.

Because of the cheaper costs, the company can do more labor-intensive work in Mexico, Muranaka said. For instance, workers in Mexico trim and peel onions that are sold for a premium price to markets in England, Muranaka said. On its Moorpark farm labor costs are too high to do similar work.

The recent demands made by the union had the company pondering whether it would keep the local operation afloat, but Muranaka said moving to Mexico would be a last resort.

He, like union representative Brito, was optimistic that the two sides would reach an agreement.

“I think we both are thinking in terms of how we can work together to make the company prosper,” Muranaka said.