UFW wins jobs back at Krug

Two dozen workers who were fired from Charles Krug winery in Napa nearly two years ago have been reinstated with back pay and raises, a hard-fought victory for the beleaguered United Farm Workers union.

The union called off its nationwide boycott of Charles Krug wines on Friday and announced it had signed a four-year contract with the St. Helena winery, which is owned by the Peter Mondavi family.

The deal is an important win for the UFW, which has struggled to maintain a presence on the North Coast in recent years.

"This is a tremendous victory for the farm workers at Charles Krug-Mondavi. This just proves that when farm workers stand up to demand their rights, they will be heard," UFW Regional Director Casimiro Alvarez said in a statement.

In addition to back pay, the new contract calls for workers to receive salary increases of about 3 percent per year from 2008 through 2011. The workers will also be credited with approximately 3 percent increases for 2006 and 2007, years they were out of work.

The total salary increases over the six-year period are between 16 and 18 percent. Workers will make between $10.43 and $13.25 per hour this year under the new contract.

"We're happy it's over," said Thomas Fossey, Krug's chief financial officer. "Basically, we have a contract that's very consistent with the one that we were trying to get two years ago."

The UFW has represented farmworkers at Charles Krug since 1975.

The most recent three-year contract expired on Dec. 31, 2005. Negotiations hit an impasse over the winery's proposal to require physical testing for vineyard workers. The winery said the tests were necessary to prevent injuries and reduce workers' compensation expenses. The union worried the tests would be used to weed out older workers.

After talks broke down, Krug told the union it planned to turn over management of its 500 acres of vineyards to a vineyard management company, Jack Neal & Sons.

The UFW organized marches in front of the winery and launched a nationwide boycott of Charles Krug wines, which range from less than $10 per bottle for its CK Mondavi brand to limited-release wines up to $100.

Despite the threat of a boycott, the winery went ahead with its plans. On July 7, 2006, it fired the union workers and brought in the management company.

The separation was a difficult one for the workers, many of whom struggled to find other work, Alvarez said.

The union filed a variety of unfair-labor practice charges with the state Agricultural Labor Relations Board, the state agency that oversees labor relations between agricultural workers and their employers.

The board filed charges against Krug, agreeing the winery failed to negotiate in good faith with the union.

A full hearing on those charges was postponed several times as the two sides continued talks. An impending hearing, set for May, may have helped speed negotiations, said Michael Lee, ALRB general counsel.

"This was a long, drawn-out case," Lee said. "I think they wanted to dance, but they probably needed us to facilitate the music."

The new contact requires new employees -- but not existing ones -- to pass a physical exam. The winery wanted existing employees -- some of whom had worked for the company for more than 20 years -- to pass a physical to reduce the risk of injuries in the field.

Fossey denied union claims the company had planned to use the tests to weed out older workers.

"There was never any bad intent with regard to that," he said. "Putting people in the field with a high exposure to injury isn't doing them any favors."

The company fired 27 union workers, but only 24 were rehired. Two workers who did not return were women who claimed they were let go because they were pregnant, Alvarez said. Those women settled their discrimination cases with the winery separately, Alvarez said.

An important provision of the new contract is that workers hired through labor contractors will sometimes be required to pay union dues. Whenever such workers are hired for more than seven days, they will be required to pay union dues and will be covered by union grievance procedures, Fossey said.

They will not, however, receive other benefits, such as pension and medical benefits, Fossey said.

The new contract marks an important win for a union whose influence has waned on the North Coast in recent years.

Workers at two Sonoma County vineyard operations voted in 2007 to oust the union.

In June, workers at Gallo Family Vineyards in Healdsburg voted to decertify the UFW by a vote of 125 to 95. The next month, workers at Richard's Grove and Saralee's Vineyard Inc. in Windsor threw out the union on a 39-6 vote.

The Saralee's Vineyard case was upheld. The Gallo vote is also likely to be upheld, Lee said.

Alvarez said the Krug case shows that despite these setbacks, unions are still needed to protect workers from mistreatment by wineries.

"The message is that employers need to respect farm workers," he said.

You can reach Staff Writer Kevin McCallum at 521-5207 or kevin.mccallum@pressdemocrat.com.