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STEELE: Judge orders 7 jailed for violating court order on UFW workersContinued from A1Co. and of 160 acres, 30 days and a $2,000 fine.• Wanda Guerber, an employee of Horton and owner of 63 acres, 30 days and a $2,000 fine.MacDonald, the only defendant present in the courtroom, left immediately after Silveira adjourned. A half-dozen farm workers also watched the proceedings.“The process is a little lengthy,” ALRB Regional Director Iawrence Alderete said after the ruling, “but it works.”Saul Martinez, a United Farm Workers official who has followed the Tex-Cal case closely, said, “I hope that this is the first step in the direction of fairness for these people (the farm workers) and peace though that’s probably just wishful thinking knowing Tex-Cal and Buddy Steele and David Caravantes.”During the past decade the farm labor board has issued six rulings concerning Tex-Cal Land Management, a total exceeded by only a few farms in the state. ALRB attorneys have been trying for nearly three years to enforce the Silveira injunction.Their case revolved around the hiring of farm labor contractors to prune and harvest the Tex-Cal vineyards during 1985. Under the injunction, Tex-Cal l^and Management was supposed to hire union workers from a seniority list before turning to labor contractors.“There are so many individual violations of this order that it almost exceeds this court’s capacity to count them,” Silveira said during a an hour and 29-minute*ruling from the bench. He ruled that Steele had committed 456 separate acts of contempt one for every non-union worker who displaced someone on the seniority list.Silveira could have found a separate violation for each day worked by each non-union worker, he said, but that “would be an exercise in excess.”Caravantes is equally responsible with Steele for the hiring of the labor contractors, Silveira said. In addition, Caravantes withheld payroll records from the court and gave the union several premature work notices to “discourage them through false call-ups.”Silveira described the false call-ups as “particularly reprehensible” and said that Caravantes’ behavior has been flagrant and outrageous.”ALRB attorney Nancy Bramberg, who prosecuted toe case, said Caravantes called union workers to a work assembly hall at least five times and then offered them no work.“It’s outrageous that workers should have to return time and time again to beg for work that’s rightfully theirs,” she said.Silveira issued fines and jail sentences against the other landowners MacDonald, Carl Steele, Kruger, Horton and Guerber after rejecting a contention by Papst that they might not know what was occurring on their land.“If in fact they do not (have control) because they are merely straw men holding title for Mr. Steele,”Silveira said, “then they are participating as agents.”Papst said the only evidence against the landowners is that they hold title to land.He called no witnesses during the five-day hearing. The ALRB called several labor contractors, who claimed Steele hired them but did not pay them. The agency also called Caravantes and Carl Steele, both of whom invoked their Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination.Papst represented several landowners, the management company and Caravantes. He said he also made a special appearance on Steele’s behalf to argue that the court has no jurisdiction over him.Jurisdiction will be a central issue in the appeal, he said. He argued that ALRB’s subpoena of Steele was improper.Silveira swept aside the defense Steele has used in several labor cases, civil actions and the federal foreclosure suit. That defense is that he is not responsible for the debts or contracts including the UFW contract made by Tex-Cal I^and Management. Steele and the other landowners claim that they have canceled their leases with the management company.But Steele actually controls and uses the management company, Tex-Cal I,and and Diamond S leasing, Silveira ruled.He reached a similar conclusion when he issued the injunction in July 1983.The same appellate court tha* will hear the appeal of the jail sentences upheld that injunction in March 1985.1 t
Newspaper Details
Bakersfield Californian
Bakersfield, California, US
Sat, Jan 18, 1986
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Kimberly S.
USA 03 Jun 2025
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