Its hard to imagine that a company with 850 acres in Napa Valley, California is in the midst of poverty. Its hard to imagine because it isn’t true. Charles Krug-Mondavi vineyards are undergoing a $21.6 million capital improvement drive and part of that drive is to fire all the workers on July 1 and turn the land over to a land manager. Krug-Mondavi announced the decision shortly after the 20-year-old union contract expired on December 31, 2005.
Krug-Mondavi is a member of the Peter Mondavi family of wines. They are one of the most well-known California wine producers, bottling such wines as CK Mondavi, St. Helena Zinfandel, Charles Krug Napa Valley Merlot, and several others. The front page of their website encourages its reader to “peruse our pages and discover for yourself the history and tradition that our Family is proud to uphold.” But what they don’t want you to peruse are what they refuse to print on their pages – decades of worker exploitation, numerous allegations of sexual harrassment, formal charges of bad-faith bargaining and discrimination.
The farmworkers have never had an easy time representing themselves under Krug-Mondavi. It took six years for the company to agree to a union contract after the workers had voted in 1975 to be represented by the United Farm Workers in one of the first union elections under California’s pioneering farm labor law. Ten years after the original contract was signed, the workers found themselves in the midst of an eight-year battle to renew their contract, finally emerging victorious in 2000.
These contract victories have proven to be successful because of the dedicated work of the farmworkers and their ability to organize boycotts. Once again, they are asking the world to help them by boycotting Krug-Mondavi wines. As 29-year veteran Krug Mondavi worker Aurelio Solorio says, “The company simply wants to do away with our union that has represented us and fought for our benefits. The company wants to implement a younger work force that will carry lower wages, no benefits, and will hold a lesser amount of knowledge of their labor rights.” Krug-Mondavi is not threatening to fire its entire workforce because they are reaching bankruptcy. They are doing it so that they can raise their bottomline and maintain a highly exploitable workforce.
So help the Krug-Mondavi farmworkers. Boycott the company’s line of wines and visit the UFW’s website to send an email to Charles Krug. Because Krug-Mondavi has continued to ignore the workers’ pleas, despite the thousands of emails sent to Mr. Krug, UFW is also asking supporters to get on their website and send an email to Beverages and More, one of the largest distributors of Krug-Mondavi wines with 45 stores throughout California.
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