Chavez Will Lead UFW Union To Demonstrate Against A&P

Striking lettuce workers from the United Farm Workers Union will lead a march today in Boston to protest the purchasing policies of the Atlantic and Pacific Food Company (A&P).

Cesar Chavez, director of the United Farm Workers Union (UFW), will march with the demonstrators from Faneuil Hall to the A&P Boston headquarters on Atlantic Ave.

Today's march, organized by UFW headquarters in Boston, is part of a national campaign to stop A&P stores from buying iceberg lettuce that does not carry the UFW union label. Farm workers demonstrated against A&P stores in over 60 cities during the past two weeks.

Nicholas Jones, the coordinator of the UFW Boston headquarters, said yesterday he is confident that today's demonstration will "force A&P headquarters in Boston to handle UFW label lettuce only."

Union Label

A spokesman from the A&P Boston headquarters said yesterday that A&P stores in Boston purchase UFW-label lettuce and only supplement their stock with lettuce that bears the Teamster Union label when UFW lettuce is in short supply.

Jones called the Teamster Union label "illegitimate" and said that the A&P Company "knows very well that workers who pick Teamster Union lettuce are not unionized."

Since the UFW began organizing lettuce workers in 1970, lettuce growers in California have signed various "sweetheart" contracts -- contracts in which workers and employers promise each other mutually beneficial favors -- with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

Acts of Collusion

The California State Supreme Court last month declared the Teamsters' Union contracts acts of collusion between growers and Teamsters to block the UFW. A statement issued by the court said that "a substantial number of field workers desired to be represented by the UFW and expressed no desire to have the Teamsters represent them."

Field labor for approximately 70 per cent of all lettuce grown is controlled by the Teamsters' Union and 15 per cent is controlled by the UFW.

Philip R. Bauer, purchasing agent for Harvard Food Services, said yesterday that Harvard only buys UFW lettuce. "When we don't serve lettuce, its because we can't get UFW lettuce," he added.