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Valley Group ChargesRangers'Union BusterstalBy GARY GARRISONAssociated Press WriterRIO GRANDE CITY, Tex. (AP)—Union officials claimed Wednesday that Texas Rangers are in Starr County acting as “union busters’’ as the union prepares for a showdown in the critical melon harvest.A union spokesman said complaints about the Rangers were being voiced in Austin and Washington by the AFL-CIO.As giant harvesting machines moved across the bountiful melon fields in 100-degree weather, growers and lawmen watched for a fledgling farm union movement to take action both sides say will bring a showdown in the 11-month-old labor dispute.Few Pickets Seen La Casita Farms, principal target of the labor organizational drive, began harvesting melons early Wednesday with ma-I chines.! Only a few pickets were seennear the farm.The union had said earlier it will attempt to cut off the labor supply, halt the shipments of the melons, and try to persuade consumers not to buy produce from La Casita Farms.Gilbert Padilla, vice president of the militant United Farm Workers Organizing Committee, AFL-CIO, said he was having difficulty in getting pickets because “they are scared of theTexas Rangers.”Several Rangers are in Rio Rio Grande City at the request of local law officials.Starr County Atty. Randall Nye said the Rangers have been “on call” since labor troubles s'began here last June.“This is none of their (the Rangers’) business,” PadillaIt would mark the first time a labor union in Mexico cooperated with a union based across the Rio Grande. Padilla said the members of the Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM) are ready to block the bridge on the Mexican side.“We are going to do it at the time we feel it can put the greatest pressure on La Farms,” Padilla said.He said the bridge blockade can be effective because underlutdaw;onstrations could prove disastrous to a crop La Casita says is its best in five years.Clarence Morris, president of th( La Casita Farms Inc., was in:Re Rio Grande City Wednesday “to see that the melons are harvested.1’The Salinas, Calif., man said Ini he was testing melons for sweet- er Casita'ness and pronounced the crop tanow being harvested “realgood.” R(Starr County has been thethithMexican law a worker cannot scene of almost constant contro-1J51 cross a picket line where the red versy since the union organiza-i'_ . - « - . _ _ _ . . a . • lt;*. . a a t a a . —and black “Huelga” flag is posted.(strike) tional drive began last June.GThe union seeks a minimumfoeplthThe union picked the melon wage of $1.25 an hour and union harvest as their showdown with' contracts for the mostly Mexi-Starr County growers because can-American field hands who cantaloupe and honeydew mel-iperform stoop labor in the vege-'bia • « * « « v . m a ^ ^ a #rrC(ons are the most perishable crop table and melon fields, grown in the border county. They claim workers are paid Farm officials say delays less than the required federal jtr caused by picket lines and dcm-jminimum wage of $1 an hour. !ajatr.iye-e-h,;n’d said. “These Rangers are justt0;union-busters, who should be out ie: chasing bandits instead of pick-lets’tinieit,iewis“We are non-violent and are not looking for trouble. We tell our pickets that if someone strikes them, they just have to take it.”Padilla said all arrangementshave been made with a Mexican labor union to set up strike flags k- and picket lines across the Rio I Grande at Miguel Aleman, Mex-| ico, in an attempt to cut off thets flow of Mexican nationals whoie!cross the bridge daily to work re I in the melon harvest, a. There was speculation the at-e, tempt might come Thursday.NYLON CORD ALL-WEATHER•« -'*» • ' ■*
Newspaper Details
Abilene Reporter News
Abilene, Texas, US
Thu, May 11, 1967
Page 54
Full Page
Clipped by
Del M.
Texas, USA 18 Feb 2019
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