Opinion ID: 781207
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Alleged harassment by the union and union officials

Text: 13 The workers have presented evidence of a campaign of harassment by the union, its officials, and its supporters after the workers signed the decertification petition. Much of the harassment was attributed to Leovigilda Romero, a Sorrento employee and former UNITE-SW shop steward. Romero called the workers stupid bitches and said the union would kick their butts, told the plaintiffs in this action that they were stupid and would go to jail if they lost their suit, threatened the workers with deportation, and flipped her middle finger at one of the workers who started dancing when the union supporters were playing music at the Sorrento factory. 14 The workers also testified to harassing behavior by UNITE-SW officers Antonio Orea and Roxana Guevara. Both Orea and Guevara apparently told workers that they would lose their jobs due to their attempts to decertify the union. Orea told workers that they would regret signing the petition, that the war has just begun, and that the union was going to battle. Several workers testified that Guevara told them they were stupid to sign the decertification petition and that, if they had been eating beans with the union, without the union, they would be eating shit. One worker testified that Guevara threatened to call immigration about the workers who did not have papers. 15 The workers' testimony established that representatives of the union, including Orea, visited workers at their homes to try to convince them to support the union. During these visits the union representatives made various threats that Sorrento would lose the Shapiro work and that the workers would lose their jobs and their health insurance. One worker testified that a union representative screamed her name from her front gate during a home visit. 16 The workers also testified that, one morning, flower arrangements and black ribbons appeared at the entrances to the Sorrento factory. On another occasion, the union officials and supporters played music at the factory, including a song about poverty entitled Cardboard Houses, to mock the other workers. Finally, the workers also testified as to their experiences during 1990, when union members apparently engaged in acts of violence during a strike at the Sorrento factory.