And strawberry cultivation uses the most pesticides of any crop in California. This is not pleasant work. The company also offers paid medical and dental plans. Nevertheless, Coastal Berry was targeted because, with 1,500 workers, it is by far the state's largest direct employer of strawberry workers. From there, the work force size drops quickly, to 300 employees or fewer.
Many growers struggle from season to season, subject to the whims of the market.
Labor constitutes one of the few costs they can control. In addition, the owners of Coastal Berry pledged to remain neutral in the union fight. Despite that support, however, the UFW's strawberry campaign stalled. To date, it has signed only one contract, with a small organic grower near Santa Cruz that employs fewer than 50 field workers. Critics have pointed to those results as proof that the union is out of touch with workers.