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—, = roy ee a ea This is the kind of evidence the UFW has in its.lemal cease against the Teamsters. A faraworker: "Firs, cff, I do not wistr to be represented the Teamsters and secondly, I never signed that peti- My name is there, but it is not my signature. I would never sign a petition like that. I am angered that someone else would put my name On & Pe tition like that. I am and always have been a loyal "Chavista" and do not want the Teamsters at all.” -- @ worker ©rom H&B M Tennecc. The Ufl} will bring a legal case poainst the Teamsters, claiming that hey forged many farm worker names to thet Sovcolled list of 4,100! Second, the UFW will show that the Teamsters used force ta get people -to sign a pe- tition saying they wanted to he repre- sented by the Teamsters Union. tion, Be et TO It should be pointed out here that the growers ere not completely free from in the Coachella met ee ee ee ee BKtams OHI) ¢ho Arnmatese Vidlhibe MA eb LID Lt bios Valley, except Steinberg and Larson, signed with the Teamsters. Whether the grovers whe signed with the Teamsters coopereted in the above mentioned im- proper activity, we probebly will never know, In the end we will see that all parties--oroawers, Teamsters and UFwW--~- made mistexcts. Bs far as the UFW is caonmcerned, no matter what the courts do, (justice grinds exceedingly slowly at times) the future cf their union is at stake. They cannot wait for court decisions. Right now the Teamsters have &5% of the Coachella Val- ley teble grape contracts. As tough Ralph Cotner of the Teamsters puts it: “We've got no reasons to leave. We got the workers...and we're gonna keep ‘em.” So, the UFw has called an ali out Strike- boycott of Coachella Valley Teamster grapes. we will report later on about the present status of the strike and how effective it has been. B. One last thing about Teamster statis- tics and techniques. NEWSWEEK (May 21, 4973) reported thet by March 7, 1973, the Teamsters asserted they had more than &,100 signatures of farm workers who mainteined they wanted the Teamsters as theiz umior. At that time, tovever, there cers rot that men Pielo workets ip the grége vingyaros! 1G be certain of his, on Jure 20, 1973, we contacted Floyd Mar- lowe, Farm Worker Representative, Calif. Dept. of Human Resources Development. He said that-gn March 30, 1973, his rerccc: show that, Jhere were 500 farm icrkers ir the grapes. Pre-harvest work of inirrir: was being done and hence not thet mary — workers were in the Coachelle Velley <z that time. How \did the Teamsters get the 4,405 names they have on their list? No ore seems ta know and they are not teliins. At this writing (June 22) Mr. Merleue says there are 3900 field workers in the QOTapes. There are 1,000 strikers. Hence m wt ers in the Valley at this time. 4,000 of the 4,900 are UFW strikers; encther 500 are UFW ferm workers employed by Ler- son and Steinberg, the two orowers in the Coachella Valiey that signed with Cesar Chavez. That leaves 3,190 farm workers in the fields of growers with Teamster contracts. Are all these workers caom- mitted to the Teemsters? Increzsingly we are Tinding by talking to "Teamster" Farm workers that they need money. They are poor people and the grape harveet is One of the ways they can make sows morey to keep them going. Many sunscrt Ceser Chavez and the UFW. We cannct segin to speculate es to how the Teamsters cot their figure of 4,100. But we co have some leads. . The following decteretion was Given under oaths: I have been working for the ------- Company for the last & years. Until Monday, the 16th of April, I worked un- Ger UFW contract. Two times the Team- Sters came to our fields befcre the Lf contract expired. They esked me to si @ piece of paper whereby I would eu Pe the new Teamster contract. I tolc th JT oedirtint¢ T ., = ec 5 + L gd Houw eo Pe et ee ee lt ee eo Sigh GeCsuSe i was Teady represented by the unicr of Ce Chavez. I saw that the majority of Other people who were working with me didn't want to sign. On Monday, April 16, the UF! cartrect expired. The next day -------~- » GuT fore- man, instead of sending us to work, tol us to stay in the camp. & would be paid that day even trcech uw Gidn't work. A little bit leter, th Teamsters arrived. Serry boss of the camn, was there _*-7 sat te foal ett -e Worle bu yu temo! (tu ey 1 = eh He eeic 4 I) ot ¢ c m Co Lee eo srtivet, Ore, nF ~ wnat IT had to sign if working. s J] wenter il KEES if I didn't. wert to sicn, fot