Help floral workers fight for their rights on Mother's Day

Help floral workers fight for their rights on Mother's Day

Central Coast floral workers need your help. As you buy flowers
this Mother's Day, please also send your e-mail today to
Raleys/Nob Hill supermarkets that are major retailers sellers of
flowers from Monterey Bay Bouquet in Aromas, CA.

In late March, more than 100 workers at Monterey Bay
Bouquet mainly women, many who worked for the company for more
than 15 years were fired and replaced with workers supplied by
farm labor contractors. The company paid the labor contractor
workers less money and provided no benefits.

According to the workers, the company's reason for firing them
was because their legal documentation. Yet the workers who
replaced them were 100 percent undocumented. The fired workers
came to the United Farm Workers and after two and a half weeks
of picket lines and delegations, the company rehired the workers
and gave them retroactive pay. Still, the workers don't feel
secure and desperately want the protections of a UFW contract.

A union election that was set at the company has been postponed
because of intimidation of workers by the employer.

Listen to just two stories from workers at Monterey Bay Bouquet:

Gabriela Lara: The company hired a labor consultant who
intimidated us. The consultant threatened us by telling us that
if we put the union in, they were not going to give us our
employment records to show that we worked there and not
[provide] proof to INS of our time here in the USA. They also
told us that the union was going to take $80,000 from the
company and then they were going to be forced to go out of
business...There was so much pressure that before the election
date we decided to withdraw from the election.

Maria Patricia Barrera: They told us that the union was going to
take all our money in dues, that they would never come around to
represent us and also that the company was going to go out of
business because they would not be able to afford us...We had so
much pressure and tension that as I am writing this my stomach
still feels ill...The company still has the labor contractor
workers here; which makes me insecure of my job. That is why we
are still with the Union asking them to help us. PLEASE HELP...

Please send your e-mail to Raleys/Nob Hill supermarkets today.
Ask the company whether it wants to be linked with Monterey Bay
Bouquet's unscrupulous behavior. Tell Raleys/Nob Hill it should
take the responsible stand and stop buying these flowers unless
Monterey Bay Bouquet follows the law and allows a free and fair
election without threats or intimidation

Go to: http://www.ufwaction.org/campaign/mbbouquet/e5kn3b4z7wi5bw?

Please ask your friends to help these flower workers. Every
e-mail sent makes a difference. Go to:
http://www.ufwaction.org/campaign/mbbouquet/forward/e5kn3b4z7wi5bw?