00:00:00.009 - 00:00:17.770

Wells Fargo accounts, did you know anything about that? No. Did you go to the Teamster convention where they passed that resolution saying they were going to have a campaign against uh against, uh, Wells Fargo? No, you weren't there. Who, who went from, from the from the

00:00:17.770 - 00:00:48.810

strikers committee? Was Shavella there? Uh, hold on, please. I went. It was Chabelo, Cuca, and my and uh myself. So you all three went to the convention. Can you describe it for me what it was like? Hey, put him on the speakerphone, Gloria. Is that Oscar?

00:00:58.020 - 00:01:22.250

Yeah, he, that's his office. Tell him to put the speakerphone on. Yeah, no, put him on, put him on. I mean, uh, you can just push a button on that phone and you can both talk, right? OK. OK. I Uh-huh. He wants me to do it

00:01:22.250 - 00:01:42.690

myself. OK, that's the way he wants it. I'll get him later. Well, what, what, um, you were, you were gonna describe the, the Teamster convention. It was what in Las Vegas, was it? No, it was in San Francisco. Oh, it was in San Francisco. That's where

00:01:42.690 - 00:01:58.120

the Teamster convention was. We didn't go to the one in Las Vegas. Oh, OK, OK. I think that the international voted in Las Vegas, I think, to have, to have, to have the So this was a different meeting in San Francisco and you and uh Cuca

00:01:58.120 - 00:02:28.860

and Shavela went to San Francisco. Did anybody from your group go to the Las Vegas convention? No, OK, um, so you really couldn't comment on that, um. What happened in San Francisco? When was that? I, I don't know what what convention this was. It was not

00:02:28.860 - 00:02:55.160

a convention. It was a boycott that we were went to discuss with Wells Fargo. 00, I'd love to hear about that. This was when was this? During the strike, but I don't recall the date to the end. This was before one year into the strike one

00:02:55.160 - 00:03:17.380

year into the strike, and shortly after you met with them, uh, they cut off Mort Consul's credit. Yeah, so this was after they gave him a loan and then they, they cut him off, um. One thing that um. I mean, you, you knew that he was

00:03:17.380 - 00:03:36.029

going to probably going to go out of business at that point. Um Were you surprised when you heard that David Gill was interested in buying the plant? Yes. Yes, it was, we were really surprised, but it was really, you know, like a ray of hope for

00:03:36.029 - 00:03:51.910

the strikers. Yes, this is one thing that Sergio emphasized. He said that he was the one who heard that Gil might be persuaded to buy the plant, that he was interested in it even before Consul was in trouble, and that he was the one who contacted

00:03:51.910 - 00:04:07.740

him. He also said he didn't tell anybody what he was doing. Uh, do you have any comment to make about that? I mean, did you, did you know that? Is that what your impression was, is that, uh, that his account is is what actually happened? yes

00:04:08.119 - 00:04:34.559

we knew that. The more council was really in debt with the with him and uh Crocetti and JJ Groti with with David Gill, you mean, yeah, um, so he owed Crossetti money too, yeah. And that both of them right now. Here's one of the things that

00:04:34.559 - 00:04:57.820

interested me, um, when David Gill finally negotiated a settlement. Um, You didn't reject it, you didn't accept it either. You just basically voted to have it go back to the table. And then you, uh, because the health benefits weren't included. Yes. What did you think when

00:04:57.820 - 00:05:12.399

you heard when you first heard the terms of the settlement they were offering you? Did you, were you prepared to go back or didn't you want to until they got the health benefits put back in, we were, we were gonna stay out as long as we

00:05:12.399 - 00:05:30.399

could for the benefits because it was the very thing that we went out and strike for what was wrong with the benefits package they offered. They weren't eliminating the benefits. They were just making it harder to qualify for them. Yeah, what do you remember the exact

00:05:30.399 - 00:05:48.609

terms of it? I think that the new people. You know that uh The bottom of the seniority were the ones that are going to be affected more affected. It wouldn't have affected you because you were pretty much a year-round worker. Yeah, probably that about what half

00:05:48.609 - 00:06:05.730

the workers in the plant were seasonal and they would not have had any health insurance. A lot of those seasonal workers were. On the picket line too, right, they were, they were part of the strikers, yeah, uh, so it would have been very difficult. Did anybody

00:06:05.730 - 00:06:24.149

make a move to go back at that point? No. Um, Here again, I'm, I'm gonna ask you something I heard somewhere else, uh, that there was a move by some of the mechanics to go back to work. Yeah, all of them. Uh, I mean, it wouldn't

00:06:24.149 - 00:06:50.970

have included Chivelo, obviously. Yeah, right. Oh, he wasn't. OK, yeah, I thought he was and uh. Sergio issued a letter, uh, asking the mechanics to stay out until everybody had settled, yeah. Um, which he claims Joe Fay drafted and forced him to sign. Uh, I'll let

00:06:50.970 - 00:07:12.570

those two slug that one out, um. Did You basically you were, you were faced with the possibility that if you voted down that agreement. Uh, the Teamsters might withdraw sanctions from the strike. They might stop supporting you. Was that your understanding at the time? Yeah. Were

00:07:12.570 - 00:07:30.190

you afraid of what would happen if you this this if the strike was not sanctioned? Yes, but it didn't, uh, the sanctions actually were not withdrawn. You didn't actually reject the contract. Uh, you just said we need more time, you know, go back to the table

00:07:30.190 - 00:07:48.160

and keep working, uh, so that way they, they wouldn't withdraw the sanctions and you wouldn't have to settle for losing the benefits. OK, tell me what happened then. But then um You, you said there was a tent city, there was a tent set up in the

00:07:48.160 - 00:08:13.739

middle of town. For the food, the hunger strikers hunger strike. Whose idea was that? You didn't participate. Yes, I did. You did. You actually, you went hungry for 5 days. Did you um I think it was longer than that though. Who, who, who participated in the

00:08:13.739 - 00:08:32.690

hunger strike? Uh, it was from the strikers committee. It was Cuca and myself and a lot of ladies. We set up a tent in front in front of the cannery. And this is here again, this is when I interviewed Joe Fahey, he talked about this a

00:08:32.690 - 00:08:54.780

lot. He said that the The national media was all over Watsonville because they were expecting a settlement. Instead, they had a bunch of women basically, you know, in a tent, not eating, you know, in protest, uh, so they didn't get the story they expected, um. You,

00:08:54.989 - 00:09:14.010

I remember you're saying that when, when the time came to march. Uh, you were too weak. Yes, you didn't go along the march because we were so weak. But, but, uh, what, how many people did participate in that march? Oh my God, a lot of people,

00:09:14.140 - 00:09:30.900

I guess it was like the whole can was begged to march. People marched on their knees. Oh, there was another march. Oh, OK, yeah, that was what I was talking about was when you were talking about the one for the for the victory. Yeah, oh, that

00:09:30.900 - 00:09:47.679

one, yeah. Oh no, we participate in the march on our knees too. You participated in that. And then we had the police looking at us like, oh my God, what is going on now with these ladies? They went crazy or what? Had you ever done anything

00:09:47.679 - 00:10:04.590

like that? Had you ever done anything like that? What made you all think of it? Uh, because there was a lot of really religious ladies in our strike, yeah. You know, and then, you know, if they do it, you have to do it. You feel like,

00:10:04.599 - 00:10:20.760

you know, I have to do it. I'm, I'm not a Catholic myself, so I don't understand the significance of it. Yeah, they do it in Mexico, yeah, all the time to protest or or just to, to, you know, to ask God for the strike to be

00:10:20.760 - 00:10:37.929

over or or for something. So it was, it was, it was really a religious thing. It wasn't just a protest. People were asking God for a just settlement and they went from the tent to what one of the from the door of the cannery all the

00:10:37.929 - 00:10:57.080

way to St. Patrick's Saint Patrick's. What happened when you got to Saint Patrick's? Well, we had all the police waiting for us right there because they probably thought we were having another another rally or another. Did the pastor let you in? Did you go into the

00:10:57.080 - 00:11:15.690

church? Mhm. And there was just a service there, yes. Um, did the was the pastor someone who had supported you all the way through? Uh-huh. What was his name? I can't recall his name, but uh he supported us in a lot of things. Yeah, I, I

00:11:15.690 - 00:11:31.489

remember, I guess it was Alex uh told me that there was one pastor who was very good who did a lot of work for the strike. That was the fellow at Saint Patrick's. There's another Catholic church in town, isn't there? Is it Saint Joseph, uh. No,

00:11:31.500 - 00:11:55.570

it was assumption, yes, um, most of the strikers belong to Saint Patrick's Patrick's and, and, uh, the one across the river from, uh, the Baroh, yeah, yeah, um, how big a role did the church play? I mean, how big a role did uh Did the uh

00:11:56.150 - 00:12:11.190

people talk about the, the many of the strikers are very religious and this is one of the things that kept people going. What exactly you know, like foods and all that. Did, did you get mentioned when they had the er the, you know, the, the, the

00:12:11.190 - 00:12:28.099

mass on Sunday or the preacher talk about you from the pulpit or anything like that yeah. What kinds of things would he say? Would he just encourage people to support you? Would he support the people in the strike, you know, to to the landlords to wait

00:12:28.099 - 00:12:45.419

for people with the rents. Do you think it had an impact? I mean, did it stop people from being evicted? Yes, yeah, there were enough landlords who were, you know, part of the church that they were doing the right, and that the priest helped with that.

00:12:46.619 - 00:13:09.789

Um, yeah, yeah. Uh I'm, you know, I'm starting to run out of questions. I'm sure I'll have more as soon as we shut the phone line down, um. Actually, there's something that That um That Tom Ryan wanted me to ask you because I, I, I talked

00:13:09.789 - 00:13:34.299

to him last night. He wanted to know How you um How you met Oscar, how you worked with him, you know, uh. What you came with his shorts and his, I mean he was one of those guys and sandals he didn't come to work in the

00:13:34.299 - 00:13:52.859

plant. He was in shorts because he wore shorts, right? to the hippie hippie. You tell him I never thought of that myself, but I'll remember it. I know, but, uh, you know, he won the people, he people had all their trust in him and, you know,

00:13:52.929 - 00:14:09.380

and his group of people and And they did help us a lot, you know, and you traveled with him when you went around making speeches, yeah, yeah. Would he translate for you or, uh, no, I was doing he was letting me do my own thing and

00:14:09.380 - 00:14:23.530

I was writing my own speeches. No. You, you generally spoke in English then when you, yeah, I think I remember going to a couple of, uh, hearing one speech you made in Spanish and somebody translated for you. I think it was a, I think it was

00:14:23.530 - 00:14:42.299

a unity event. But there were probably a lot of Spanish speaking people in the audience too, yeah, that would have made more sense, um. You go to Boston, it's different, you know, um. I wanted to ask about a bunch of uh people from the Teamsters International

00:14:42.299 - 00:14:58.479

came into town around the time of the um. Uh, what was after the convention in Las Vegas, I guess, and they must have been very visible. Uh, uh, people who, you know, they, they spent a lot of time driving people down to the polls on the

00:14:58.479 - 00:15:16.590

day of the certification vote and stuff. Did you have much contact with these guys? I forget the veld or most of it with the with the yeah I know and another guy that came with Alex. Yeah, um, I mean I've got the names written down somewhere,

00:15:16.690 - 00:15:39.530

but these were guys who had You know, been pretty high up in the international union and here Alex gave me a bunch of names. Uh, JC Lenvar, uh, Eddie Rodriguez, uh, Vince Rodriguez, yeah, Vince, uh, Vince Oloise, who I, I, I think I remember his name

00:15:39.530 - 00:15:58.190

from, uh, he mentioned, uh, John Blake. Um, he also told me an interesting story about, um, The guy who had headed the Western Conference of Teamsters at the time the strike started, who was actually a buddy of Mort Consols, and then he was voted out of

00:15:58.190 - 00:16:17.119

office in Las Vegas and he tried to undermine, uh, you know, what you were doing, um, yeah, yeah, um. Anderson Did you know anything about that? Andy Anderson, I guess he was the head of the Western Conference of Teamsters, and he, he showed up on at

00:16:17.119 - 00:16:33.669

a negotiating session on management side of the table. You, you didn't know anything about that. I remember, but I just don't remember names. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and you didn't have a whole lot of contact with Eddie Rodriguez or any of those other guys who came in

00:16:33.669 - 00:16:54.719

from the international, yes. Generally, generally in the union because we, we were, you were too busy doing when I was doing traveling, I was in the union the whole time in the picket line or. Or planning what we were gonna do next. And um I, I,

00:16:54.770 - 00:17:18.619

I wanna ask you after you went back to work, uh, and how long did Norcal, uh, did, uh, Norcal last before they, they shut down and moved to Mexico? They took over the plant in '87. How long did the plant keep operating? Well, it was. 1998

00:17:18.619 - 00:17:40.270

or 1987. Another 10 years or so really before they closed down. Yeah. Uh-huh. Um, when you went back you were working for 585. Yes, uh, and there were no further conflicts with them until they closed the plant. Well, you know, we were all I mean, I

00:17:40.270 - 00:18:01.750

think it was not so much the. The free trade, the close up plan, there was bad management. Because we were seeing, you know, that things were not the same. One thing that I remember um after the strike was over. I interviewed Cesar Chavez, you know, and

00:18:01.750 - 00:18:18.719

asked him for his reaction. And he said, you know, more than the wages, you know, more than the actual terms of the settlement is that after all those years of nothing happening in that union, they have a union in that plant now. They have a, you

00:18:18.719 - 00:18:35.349

know, the workers can fight back. They can speak up for themselves, and that's what the real victory was. Would you agree? Yes, but you know that we had a little bit of hard feelings against them. The union because we asked them to stop their fields at

00:18:35.349 - 00:18:58.420

least for a couple of days and they refuse. You know, I'm, I'm losing my audio again. I mean, I, it's, it's coming up on the screen, but I can't hear you very well. Hold on one second. OK. Try saying something Gloria. OK, that's much better using

00:18:58.420 - 00:19:15.969

different headphones, um, OK, uh. What was it like in the plant when you went back to work? You said there were still some scabs there. Yes, they had some scabs staying there and they were not workers. They were foreman. They were, you know, you want him

00:19:15.969 - 00:19:38.579

to get your old job as the floor leader. Yes, you weren't a floor leader anymore. No, I was, yeah, but you know, they hid some of the skips. And management. And it was kind of hard in the beginning, but you know, like years went by. I

00:19:38.579 - 00:19:57.709

guess they accepted a more, more, you know, but they were still called scabs. People will still call them scared. You know, there's one thing I haven't asked you about eventually you guys didn't qualify for unemployment when you first went out on strike. No, but eventually you

00:19:57.709 - 00:20:20.390

got it. No, no, you never got unemployment? Never. OK. Never did and a lot of us didn't qualify for the, for the any. Any help, you know, any. You mean the union strikes? No, union strikes, yes, but you know, like, like uh food stamps or no,

00:20:20.489 - 00:20:38.430

not, you know, like, like uh help from the government, nope. Nope, we didn't qualify for nothing. I wanted to ask you about your kids. I mean, they knew what was going on. Uh, they must have known, uh, not that the twins, but the younger ones. Yes,

00:20:39.020 - 00:20:52.660

they were with me in the strikes all the time. Yeah, they were down on the picket line. What about when you were traveling? Um, my daughters were taking care of them. Uh-huh, yeah, so the twins were, were, they were, they were like 13, right, right, they

00:20:52.660 - 00:21:06.400

were old enough to take care. They're about as old as you were when you first went to work in the plant. Did you think of it that way? Yes, yeah, hey, I did it. You can do it. No, besides, you know, I used to work nights,

00:21:07.530 - 00:21:24.900

nights, so I could take care of them in the day and then they just take care of them in the evening. But I'm just thinking that when you were traveling, you know, your daughters watching my daughters and my sister-in-laws, you know, everybody chipped in. Were a

00:21:24.900 - 00:21:41.119

lot of people in the union. Did they get involved? I know in the early 90s, local 912 became very active in trying to stop the North America free trade agreement we're going through. I know, uh, I understand Chavela went down to Mexico to look at the

00:21:41.119 - 00:22:00.540

frozen food plants there. Can you tell me anything about that? I probably need to talk to Shavelo about it, but, but, you know there was a big mistake to let. To let that happen, to let the treaty, the free trade because, you know, this is one

00:22:00.540 - 00:22:17.339

thing that everybody in the plant united around us that to try to stop this from happening. I actually heard Sergio speak at an event in San Jose, I think it was in '93. He gave a very good speech. Uh, he was talking to a group of

00:22:17.339 - 00:22:31.900

workers who I, I, I think mostly. You know, we're working the midnight shift as janitors, and they, you know, they didn't, they weren't legal, you know, uh, and they wanted to go home and they said, what's wrong with American companies investing in Mexico, you know, I

00:22:31.900 - 00:22:44.680

said if we can go home, we don't have to stay up here to work and work these rotten jobs and these rotten hours, and he said, you know. When have American companies going down to Mexico, when has that ever done our country any good, you know,

00:22:44.760 - 00:22:57.359

all they ever do is give us the shaft, you know, it was a good speech. He, he had, he had their attention, you know, I was, you know, that was the first time I think I really, I had heard of Sergio as a guy who was

00:22:57.359 - 00:23:13.229

not. You know, not that good during the strike, you know, uh, and that was when I first realized, well, you know, maybe he's, there's more to this guy than I realized because I was impressed, you know. He made a good speech. Yeah, yeah, he was a

00:23:13.229 - 00:23:28.849

good speaker and you know. Do you think he was changed by the strike in a good way? I mean, for all those years, he basically kind of was like he worked under Richard King and You know, kind of had too much respect for the workers. Yeah.

00:23:29.069 - 00:23:43.989

Do you think that the strike changed his feelings at all? I think so. He was easier to deal with afterwards because he continued to run the union right up until a few years ago, didn't he? Yeah. And there was a different atmosphere in the union after

00:23:43.989 - 00:23:57.410

the strike. I always had bad feelings against me and Oscar and that I've noticed, yeah, I noticed that, yeah, but generally it was easier to participate in the union. It was easier for people to play an active role in it than it had been before. Yes,

00:23:58.239 - 00:24:14.079

yeah, I mean. Were there, what did people do aside from just going to meetings? What kinds of things that people do? Did people get involved in campaigning against NAFTA, for instance? Did they were their committees that set up that people participated in? How did, how did

00:24:14.660 - 00:24:32.630

members participate after the strike was over? After the strike was over it was over, yeah, after you went back to work. No, after the strike is over, I think people just went back to their, they just went back to work. I'm just thinking in terms of

00:24:32.630 - 00:24:50.390

participating, going to union meetings, uh, speaking out, was there more of that afterwards after the strike, little bit more, yeah, yeah, a little bit more. Uh, and after the plant shut down, that was when you went to work for Longs, right? Yeah, I, I went, no,

00:24:50.550 - 00:25:08.780

I went, I went to work for the Richard shows for a whole year. Oh, Shaw lasted longer than uh. Nor did. Yes, and then the thing is that shows that our plant. Oh, it. Yes, just to shut it down and leave us out of work. All

00:25:08.780 - 00:25:30.189

they offered us was a job in their plant and their seniority list, yeah. That's why we had the last protest, that Sergio was not too happy about it. He wasn't happy about that either, yeah, yeah, but we had to do it, you know, but you know.

00:25:30.969 - 00:25:45.000

I should ask you a little bit about what happened in Watsonville after the strike was over. I mean, you had this terrible earthquake. Did that affect you directly? Was your house damaged or anything like that? Yes, it was damaged. I mean, it was, it was, I

00:25:45.000 - 00:26:03.000

had it remodeled not not before the strike, so it wasn't that bad, right? But a lot of people, you know, yeah, hi there. Their houses. These are people who'd been out on strike for 18 months and already had a lot of financial problems as a result,

00:26:03.949 - 00:26:18.810

yeah, and went back to work for less money than they were making when they first went out. Was there a lot of unhappiness about that, the fact that they, they were making less money? I noticed some people made an issue of that. You don't think that

00:26:18.810 - 00:26:39.619

was, you don't think people were just looking at the numbers, you know the same, you know, the same, uh, attitude, you know, work and work and, you know, make money for the plant and all that stuff, right, right, um, and You had uh you had some

00:26:39.619 - 00:26:54.839

elections right after the strike and the city government changed a good deal. Yes, tell me a little bit about that. Um, how did life in Watsonville become different after the strike was over apart from the fact that your friend Oscar was now the mayor? Uh-huh. Well,

00:26:55.000 - 00:27:21.310

you know. It was, we were more aware, you know, that we needed better representation and uh. In the city hall because you know, They, we didn't have that that support. When we were on strike. I mean, was this a big issue during the strike? Was the

00:27:21.310 - 00:27:35.079

fact that the city government was not sympathetic? You said you picketed the police department a lot. You picketed city hall. Why did you do that? What were you protesting? Because they were, you know, they were not, they were against the workers. They were not. How were

00:27:35.079 - 00:27:50.150

they, how were they against the workers? What would they do? I mean, they were looked at us like a whole bunch of troublemakers. Were and people were arrested, people were uh were there when people were being evicted, was there any attempt to stop the evictions from

00:27:50.150 - 00:28:07.969

happening? No, no, um, I remember hearing a story during the strike about somebody who was arrested, you know, who lived across the street from the plant and was arrested on our front porch. Uh, can you give me any details about that? Who that was what actually

00:28:07.969 - 00:28:28.300

happened. He was arrested in front of a porch, yeah, on their, on their right in front of their house on their property. Oh yes, Enrique was Enrique Enrique. What was his? Oh right, OK, um, this was the guy that you mentioned who'd worked some with TDU

00:28:28.300 - 00:28:52.660

before the strike. Yeah, uh, he lived across from the plant. Why was he arrested? wonderful. I don't recall that, but I know he was arrested. Yeah, well I can, I can do some more research on that. Do you have any idea how many people were arrested,

00:28:52.750 - 00:29:13.920

all told during the strike, yeah. Did you travel at all? I mean, aside from going to make speeches and, you know, raise and get support, did you travel to where they were recruiting scabs? Did anybody do that? Yes, can you tell me anything about how it

00:29:13.920 - 00:29:32.880

happened or would I need to talk to somebody who had actually done it? They had a confrontation in. With the scabs Do you know? Mhm. Do you know when this was? This is something I should probably know about. Or who was who was there? You weren't

00:29:32.880 - 00:30:07.280

there, were you? uh. Yeah, those, those things during the strike were very common, you know, like, like confrontations with the police and all that stuff or arrest and everything, yeah, it was very common, right, you know, um. They're gonna throw me out of the studio in

00:30:07.280 - 00:30:23.719

a few minutes, so I'm going to, I'm gonna cut this short. They're trying to run a radio station here, um, Gloria, it's, it's wonderful talking to you. I, you know, I, I. Uh I'm sorry that Long's uh made you retire. As far as I'm, you know,

00:30:23.839 - 00:30:35.920

it sounds to me like you got a lot of work left in you. Um. But I'll probably be coming south, you know, at some point, uh, and I'll be trying to look you up.