UFW Contract Settled
Bruce Church Inc., the third-largest lettuce grower in the U.S. reached a five-year
contract with the UFW that will give field workers expanded medical coverage and
increase wages by 4%.
The contract not only ends 17 years of boycotts and suits, but represents the UFW's
first contract with a lettuce grower in years. The UFW boycott against lettuce
prompted a lawsuit by Bruce Church which it won against the union, but earlier
this year the Arizona Court of Appeals overturned the huge damage award and Bruce
Church returned to seeking a settlement.
Under the new contract that the UFW and Bruce Church worked out, lettuce workers
received not only a expanded medical package but an increase from the previous
hourly wage of $7.63 to $7.95 per hour. Raises over the next few years will
average just over 2%.
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