Workers also want a guarantee that they will be rehired every season which means the union will again have to confront labor contractors who hand out jobs with little respect for seniority. The campaign started last weekend with a march in classic UFW style. Watsonville's normal population of 35,000 nearly doubled as people poured in from all over California and beyond. The total strawberry workforce at the peak of the season in the Pajaro Valley is about 15,000. The day's activities were designed to convince growers of the union's strength not only among the workers but in the supermarkets.
Growers know the union can turn the pledge into a boycott.
That's not unlikely. Already growers have refused to rehire workers like Jose Rojas who were active in organizing union committees. This year, when Rojas went to get his job back at Gargiulo Company, where he has worked for the past six years, he was told he wasn't being rehired because last year he was written up for picking a few unripe berries. Cleansing the crews isn't the growers' only tactic. Last season some foremen and higher-paid, permanent workers organized the Pro Workers Committee and marched against the union.