Sonoma County farmworker advocacy org North Bay Jobs With Justice, known for their annual protest during the Healdsburg Wine & Food Experience tasting near the plaza, is making some headway in one of their local campaigns against a familiar name in Healdsburg winemaking: billionaire Bill Foley, who runs multiple wineries and restaurants in our area.
The Press Democrat reports:
A state agency set up to protect the rights of agricultural workers has filed a complaint accusing a Sonoma County-based winery giant and one of its vineyard management companies of retaliating against farmworkers who asked for a raise and used their paid sick leave.
The complaint by the Agricultural Labor Relations Board followed its investigation into claims farm laborers made through North Bay Jobs with Justice — a coalition of local groups that advocate for workers — against a vineyard management company used by billionaire Bill Foley’s Foley Family Farms.
The ALRB complaint contends that Calistoga-based Dos Viñas Vineyard Management, LLC, a contractor for Foley Family Farms, fired eight workers after they asked for a $1 per hour raise and started to use their three paid sick days.
The complaint also said the workers’ supervisor — who communicated their concerns to Dos Viñas owner Mariano Navarro — was fired two days before they were.
Foley Family Farms did not respond to two Press Democrat requests for comment.
North Bay Jobs With Justice adds on Instagram:
🤜🏽💰 Farmworkers are FIGHTING BACK! Billionaire Bill Foley’s Foley Family Wines is connected to alleged retaliation in Sonoma County vineyards!
It’s very telling that in an industry where the richest companies continue expanding, the workers who make it all possible risk unjust consequences for simply asking for what they deserve.
👏🏽DIGNIFIED WAGES NOW!👏🏽
The org also staged a protest a couple of weekends ago outside one of Foley’s wineries down in the Sonoma Valley area, during the fancy annual Sonoma County Wine Celebration. Like at most of their recent protests, local farmworkers and their advocates demanded minimum pay of $25 hour (or $250 per ton of grapes picked) for farm and vineyard workers, as well as extra “disaster pay” for working (or not being able to work) during dangerous conditions like floods and wildfires.
“In an industry with so much wealth accumulated for those at the top, the workers who make it all possible deserve more!” organizers wrote on Insta.
Can anyone explain to me why Bill Foley is being drug through the mud and his facilities picketed by the fieldworkers when their beef clearly seems to be with Dos Vinas Vineyard Management LLC? Wouldn’t it be the Dos Vinas management company that set the workers pay rate and decides who works and who gets laid off?
I don’t agree with employment retaliation or persecution practices at all, but what part in those actions did Mr Foley or his business participate in?