Los Angeles Times Grower Is at Root of New Era in Labor Relations Coastal Berry finds itself on vanguard of change in an industry notorious for poor working conditions.
Competitors decry union-friendly approach.
Sure, the firm he works for, Watsonville-based Coastal Berry Co., is at the center of a historic United Farm Workers campaign to organize berry pickers, a crucial first step in a larger drive to unionize the state's 20,000 strawberry workers. But for Murray, who at age 27 is in charge of Coastal's Oxnard operation, the focus remains on getting the fruit to market. And the business at hand is growing strawberries, putting them in a box and selling them to customers. In an industry historically hostile to organized labor and notorious for its low pay and stoop labor, Coastal Berry is at the forefront of change, whether it wants to be or not. The company's wages are the highest of any strawberry grower in the state, according to the California Institute for Rural Studies in Davis.