Boycotters Turn Up Heat on
Chateau Ste. Michelle as Struggle Continues

They sponsored a booth at the Fremont Street Fair, gathering petitions and distributing information to a steady stream of fair-goers. They carried a banner and marched in the Gay Pride parade, receiving applause and vocal support from parade-watchers. "Boycott Chateau Ste. Michelle" bumper stickers are seen throughout the city. People eating at The Keg restaurants have to cross picket lines to get in.

Stepped-up boycotting comes after an effort during Washington state's last legislative session to grant seasonal workers - including migrant farmworkers - collective-bargaining rights. The effort failed, and failed miserably.

Both sides of the issue are still pointing fingers of blame at each other. State representatives, senators and Chateau Ste. Michelle officials say the farmworkers union was unwilling to compromise on specific details of collective-bargaining rights, which killed the whole bill. Labor group members, however, say that Gov. Mike Lowry and state legislators compromised the bill by giving in to powerful lobbyists.

"Lowry sold his soul to the agricultural interests at the expense of farmworkers' protection," said Mary Ann Shroeder, a member of the Seattle Farmworkers Support Group. And regardless of what factors are responsible for the bill's defeat, she said, the fact remains that a large contingent of uneducated, non-English-speaking Latino migrant workers are left without representation.

Mark Jennings, public relations spokesperson for Chateau Ste. Michelle, said it was the union organizers' "all or nothing" attitude that defeated the bill.

Furthermore, Jennings says that most of the information used by the Farmworkers Union support groups - details on hourly wages, worker safety, access to emergency medical attention and pesticide exposure - is "misleading." The company was, and still is, in favor of the bill, Jennings said.

Increased boycott visibility is having an effect on the winery's parent company, U.S. Tobacco, said Washington Farmworkers Union organizer Jackie Branz. She said the fact that U.S. Tobacco representatives recently flew to Sweden to try and talk a prominent Swedish foodworker union - Svenska Livsmedelarbetare

Forbundet - out of supporting the Chateau Ste. Mich-elle boycott was evidence that the boycott is working.

And, boycott organizers have turned to civil dis-obedience. Margie White was arrested June 10 and charged with criminal

trespass during a dinnertime picket at The Keg in Seattle's University District. (Seattle police officers prevented a Free Press reporter from talking to White as they manacled her and loaded her into a squad car.) The groups say they will continue the protests until the winery gives in to their demands.

They may have to wait until the next legislative session for this to happen, and even then - judging from discouraging letters written by state Rep. Michael Heavey, Senate Majority Floor Leader Jim Jesernig and bill sponsor Sen. Margarita Prentice - labor rights advocates may not find a sympathetic ear in the state Legislature anytime soon.

- David Hirning

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Contents on this page were published in the July/August, 1993 edition of the Washington Free Press.
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