UFW Gallo Wine Boycott Kickoff in SF

Please join UFW President, Arturo Rodriguez at the
GALLO WINE BOYCOTT KICKOFF
12 noon - TUESDAY JUNE 14th, 2005

We demand a fair contract for Farm Workers at Gallo of Sonoma Vineyards

Join us at the steps of
San Francisco City Hall
1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place
(Polk & McAllister St.)
Check for more info at http://www.GalloUnfair.com

Background info below:
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Farmworkers lived in squalor in raided Windsor house
By MARY FRICKER
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

The Windsor house where 29 farm laborers cooked on camp stoves and slept on
wall-to-wall mattresses was strewn with trash and filth. The walls and
floors were ripped, scarred and dirty. Exposed wiring ran throughout. The
septic system had failed, and sewage puddled on the ground.

On Thursday, a task force of federal and state agencies swept down on the
house, where the squalid conditions were described by a local official as
the worst he has seen.

"I've seen substandard housing before. But I've never seen it this bad,"
said Steve Pantazes, the building official for Windsor.

The workers, employed by Fresno labor contractor Israel Gonzales, who rented
the house, cooked on propane camp stoves indoors, Pantazes said. They slept
on mattresses in all five rooms of the three-bedroom, one-bath house at the
northwest corner of Highway 101 and Shiloh Road. They bathed with a garden
hose outside.

Gonzales could not be located for comment Monday.

State officials said the raid was part of a crackdown and they plan more.

Gallo Vineyards, where the laborers had been employed, said Monday it would
not tolerate such conditions for its contract workers.

On Monday, a construction crew hired by the owner of the property, Sonoma
County hotelier Niten "Nick" Desai, sifted through piles of waste. They
secured leaking batteries and open containers of engine oil. They loaded
hundreds of pounds of debris into an industrial garbage container.

Desai said he did not know how many people were living at the house and had
no idea of the condition of the property, which he had rented to Gonzales
for three years. He said he never visited the property because Gonzales
never complained and always paid the rent on time. Desai declined to say how
much the rent was.

"I would never have permitted it. It was ridiculous," Desai said of
conditions at the house. "I've been in Sonoma County a long time. I feel
bad."

Desai is managing partner of a Travelodge in Healdsburg and a Holiday Inn
Express in Windsor that will open in mid-May. He's also a partner in the
Boston Hotel in San Francisco. About 18 months ago, he sold a motel in
Cloverdale.

The substandard conditions were discovered when officials from five federal
and state agencies, acting on a tip, went to the house at 5:30 a.m.
Thursday, said Dean Fryer, a spokesman for the state Department of
Industrial Relations.

The raid was part of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's stepped-up effort to
enforce housing and labor laws and reach the underground economy. There
likely will be more of these raids, Fryer said.

"In the past, this hasn't been done very often, but we're getting out there
quite a bit more," Fryer said. "We know there are problems and a need to be
out there."

Gallo spokesman John Segale said Gonzales has provided labor for many Napa
and Sonoma County growers for years and there have been no problems.

"We have worked with Mr. Gonzales for a number of years, and there has never
been any allegation brought to our attention before this that he has
provided improper housing in the past," Gallo said in a statement.

"If the allegations against Israel Gonzales prove to be true, it will not
only violate our agreement with Mr. Gonzales but it will not be tolerated by
our company," the statement said.

Labor officials said Gonzales' license as a labor contractor had been
revoked in the past and he was working under a permit held by his daughter
Alondra Gonzales.

That license was revoked Thursday after the raid on grounds Gonzales did not
have Department of Labor permission to provide worker housing. The 29 men
were left without an employer. Gallo officials said they would try to find
housing and jobs for the men, Fryer said.

Windsor official Pantazes said the owner of the home, Desai, has responded
quickly to the crisis.

"I'm very pleased," Pantazes said. "Normally we have to work really really
hard with the property owner to get the property cleaned up. This is a first
for me, where the property owner's responded as quickly as he has."

Desai said he is selling the 3.8 acres where the house is because he has
tried unsuccessfully for 10 years to get permission from Windsor to develop
it.

He said he does not plan to rent the home again and eventually it will be
demolished.



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