Non-Unionized Farms Not Exploitative, Says Grape Grower

The family of Adam R. Kovacevich '99 owns a grape farm in California's San Joaquin Valley, covered with vines, but a long way from Harvard's ivy-covered halls.

The 650-acre Kovacevich vineyards--which make up slightly less than 1 percent of California's total grape acreage--are located just outside Bakers-field, Calif., in the heart of the state's agricultural region.

John J. Kovacevich and his son, Adam's brother, John Jr., spend more than eight hours each day on their non-union farm.

"Some farmers are definitely gentleman farmers, and farm from the office, but both my brother and my father are in the fields all day. They come home every night with big stains on their jeans," Adam Kovacevich says.

From the grower's perspective, says the elder John Kovacevich, the recent controversy over Harvard Dining Services' grape boycott seems surprising.

Student activists who support the HDS boycott claim that non-unionized grape pickers are exploited by their employers. According to United Farm Workers (UFW) fact sheets distributed in the dining halls, the average worker receives little more than minimum wage and no benefits or job security for working with dangerous pesticides and without toilets or drinking water.

But John Kovacevich says that the UFW's position does not adequately represent the conditions of workers on his lands and that the activist rhetoric obscures the realities of grape farming.

"I didn't even realize [the boycott] was going on anymore until Adam told me," he says.

The elder Kovacevich says he remembers when the UFW was an important group in the valley about 35 years ago. But in recent years, he says, his workers have chosen not to join unions.

"Back in the early '60s we were forced to sign with the UFW, but since then, our pickers have had chances to sign with them but haven't--I don't know why," he says.

Moreover, he says that descriptions of bad working conditions on non-union farms like his are widely exaggerated.

Not only does California have the nation's most stringent agricultural regulations, but John Kovacevich says that he could not staff his farm if he forced his pickers to work under terrible conditions.

"When the grape harvest is going on in our area, there is virtually no available help," he says.

John Kovacevich, who is the the third generation of the family to grow grapes in the San Joaquin Valley since his grandfather emigrated from Yugoslavia, says that many people may not realize that his work-force is made up of repeat workers who live in the area-contrary to the popular image of itinerant migrant labor.

Out of the four workers who oversee the picking crews, Kovacevich says two have been working for him for more than 20 years, and the other two worked in the crews for years before their promo- tions.

"Basically, I grew up with these people," he says, adding that he has a "great relationship" with his staff.

"You know, I speak Spanish all day," he says. "I have to think in Spanish from the time I get up in the morning until I go home at night. School Spanish helps you with verb tenses, but field Spanish is an entirely different thing."

Unlike many growers, Kovacevich says, he does not use a labor provider--who are often responsible for labor abuses such as employing underage or undocumented workers. Instead, he relies on his overseers to bring back workers from previous years.

Growing Grapes

Repeat labor is especially important because growing table grapes is a far more complicated process than is commonly believed, he says.

For John Kovacevich, the year begins in December, when his workers remove 90 to 95 percent of the previous year's growth, leaving just enough of the vine to produce new shoots in the spring.

"At that time, my workforce is extremely limited," he says. "Fifty people can prune the farm in five weeks."

The average daily income during the winter varies from $50 to $100, he adds.

Winter is the slow part of the grape season, he says--Kovacevich's workers only fertilize and irrigate until March, when the vines begin to grow again.

Up until the harvest, most of the work involves removing excess growth from the vines. Workers remove extra shoots, pluck leaves by hand to let in more sunlight and apply chemicals to the grape blooms to thin the bunches.

Without the chemicals and pruning, the fruit would not resemble the grapes you see in the supermarket.

"They wouldn't even be table grapes," Kovacevich says. "They'd be super tiny and crammed together."

All of these procedures are both labor-intensive and crucial to the creation of a saleable table grape. Without a well-trained, well-paid and satisfied workforce, Kovacevich says, he could not produce quality fruit.

"All this pre-harvest work is done by the hour rather than by piecework, because every process builds on the other, and if one is messed up it's trouble," he says. "You can destroy a lot of things [really quickly] if you don't know what you're doing."

The work is so painstaking, Kovacevich says, that most growers insist on having women do the pre-harvest work.

"My workforce is approximately 95 percent women," he says. "Most of the jobs are so meticulous that men tend to go faster but do less quality work."

By harvest time, Kovacevich employs about 400 workers at $5.75 per hour, plus an extra 20 cents per box. Because Kern Country employs more than 25,000 pickers in the harvest months, some workers arrive from Texas and Mexico, but Kovacevich says his workforce is still 75 percent local.

Quincy House junior Adam Kovacevich, who worked on his father's farm for three harvests, said that in his experience, the working conditions on his father's non-union farm did not appear to be bad.

"They listen to music out in the fields, and there's a small camp set up in the rows. Each person who's doing the packing will have a table with a radio," he says.

Adam Kovacevich says that he finds it surprising when Harvard students claim that working conditions in the grape farms are bad.

"Obviously I am not a farm worker, but I have worked on a grape farm and I see what goes on first-hand, and that makes it sort of disappointing that the rhetoric has caught on," he says

"Basically, I grew up with these people," he says, adding that he has a "great relationship" with his staff.

"You know, I speak Spanish all day," he says. "I have to think in Spanish from the time I get up in the morning until I go home at night. School Spanish helps you with verb tenses, but field Spanish is an entirely different thing."

Unlike many growers, Kovacevich says, he does not use a labor provider--who are often responsible for labor abuses such as employing underage or undocumented workers. Instead, he relies on his overseers to bring back workers from previous years.

Growing Grapes

Repeat labor is especially important because growing table grapes is a far more complicated process than is commonly believed, he says.

For John Kovacevich, the year begins in December, when his workers remove 90 to 95 percent of the previous year's growth, leaving just enough of the vine to produce new shoots in the spring.

"At that time, my workforce is extremely limited," he says. "Fifty people can prune the farm in five weeks."

The average daily income during the winter varies from $50 to $100, he adds.

Winter is the slow part of the grape season, he says--Kovacevich's workers only fertilize and irrigate until March, when the vines begin to grow again.

Up until the harvest, most of the work involves removing excess growth from the vines. Workers remove extra shoots, pluck leaves by hand to let in more sunlight and apply chemicals to the grape blooms to thin the bunches.

Without the chemicals and pruning, the fruit would not resemble the grapes you see in the supermarket.

"They wouldn't even be table grapes," Kovacevich says. "They'd be super tiny and crammed together."

All of these procedures are both labor-intensive and crucial to the creation of a saleable table grape. Without a well-trained, well-paid and satisfied workforce, Kovacevich says, he could not produce quality fruit.

"All this pre-harvest work is done by the hour rather than by piecework, because every process builds on the other, and if one is messed up it's trouble," he says. "You can destroy a lot of things [really quickly] if you don't know what you're doing."

The work is so painstaking, Kovacevich says, that most growers insist on having women do the pre-harvest work.

"My workforce is approximately 95 percent women," he says. "Most of the jobs are so meticulous that men tend to go faster but do less quality work."

By harvest time, Kovacevich employs about 400 workers at $5.75 per hour, plus an extra 20 cents per box. Because Kern Country employs more than 25,000 pickers in the harvest months, some workers arrive from Texas and Mexico, but Kovacevich says his workforce is still 75 percent local.

Quincy House junior Adam Kovacevich, who worked on his father's farm for three harvests, said that in his experience, the working conditions on his father's non-union farm did not appear to be bad.

"They listen to music out in the fields, and there's a small camp set up in the rows. Each person who's doing the packing will have a table with a radio," he says.

Adam Kovacevich says that he finds it surprising when Harvard students claim that working conditions in the grape farms are bad.

"Obviously I am not a farm worker, but I have worked on a grape farm and I see what goes on first-hand, and that makes it sort of disappointing that the rhetoric has caught on," he says