Grape Talk Turns Sour

California grape workers really have it tough, a member of the Grape Growers Association and the East Coast leader of the grape boycott agreed last night in a lackluster exhibition of conflicting information.

One problem that helps make the boycott unresolvable. K. K. Larson, a representative of the Growers Association, said, is not the adamancy of the vineyard owners, but that the growers and the United Farm Workers Union have not got together to hold a vote to see whether the workers even want a union.

"There is no doubt that the farm worker in the United States has his problems." Larson said. "But there are three parties to the present conflict-the growers, the workers, and the union."

Larson, who claimed the union was not concerned with the individual problems of the workers, offered to hold collective bargaining elections on his 160-acre ranch whenever the union wanted.

Francisco Rodriguez, a representative of the United Farm Workers' grape boycott, also offered to hold elections. But after a short squabble over several previous offers from both sides which had fallen through it became apparent that last night's offer was doomed to become as much of a rhetorical feint as those in the past.

Billed as "The Great Grape Debate," last night's confrontation in Sanders Theatre between Larson and Marcos Munos, leader of the East Coast grape boycott, degenerated into the "Grapo Group Grope" as both sides promised not to slip into personal insults and then did.

Larson, a husky personable California grower, admitted that there are both bad and good growers, but protested that the innocent growers, such as himself, are being hurt by the boycott without any remedy for their plight.

The Rev. Lloyd Saadjen, who istraveling around the country with Larson to try to give perspective to the grape boycott issue, added that several California growers are caught up in what began as a strike against only the Delano Valley Guemarra Grape Company.

"We've too long focused on the few exceptions and not on the great people in both groups [growers and workers] who need our help to get together," he said.

Neither the pay scale nor the problem of pesticides in the fields is a major issue, both sides agreed. The issue which has kept the grape boycott going since 1965 is still whether the AFL-CIO farm workers will represent the migrant workers or not.

Marcos claimed the boycott leaders have petitioned the grape growers several times asking for union elections and have been refused each time.

Larson countered that he has never received an offer. He added that there is no federal legislation yet passed which would provide for a fair election even if the growers and workers agreed to hold one.