Task force to address farm union issues

SALEM (AP) - Several dozen farm workers and their employers told members of a state Senate task force Tuesday that they are frustrated by the lack of rules for collective bargaining on Oregon farms.

The Senate Task Force on Farm Workers met for the first time Tuesday in Woodburn to discuss collective bargaining on the state's farms, an issue that has recently caused conflict between laborers and their employees.

Unlike other businesses, agricultural employers are not required to bargain with unions.

Recent worker-led boycotts of Norpac Foods Inc., a Stayton-based vegetable packer, and Pictsweet Mushroom Farms, near Salem, have drawn more attention to the issue.

Sen. Roger Beyer, task force chairman, said the discussions could lead to changes in state law, although he wasn't sure what the task force would recommend.

Several Pictsweet customers stopped buying its mushrooms, but the workers didn't get a contract and the mushroom farm is closing this month.

"The company ignored us," said Enrique Mendoza, a mushroom worker who had one day left on the job.

Representatives of the agriculture industry said economic pressures make it nearly impossible to pay more, despite pressure from unionized workers.