California diary processors manufactured about 10% more cheese in September than they did a year ago say USDA. Leading the charge was a 12.2% increase in mozzarella production than a year ago.Of the 187 million pounds of cheese made in the state in September – about 119 million pounds of that were the Italian variety. Cheese prices are up this fall with block cheddar selling at 20 cents more a pound than this summer.
Still dairymen here are unhappy with the CDFA’s latest pronouncements offering no relief on 4b prices.”California dairymen are getting $2 less for hundredweight than dairymen across the border in Nevada” says Tulare County supervisor Pete VanderPoel who comes from a dairy family. “When we are talking about million of pounds of milk – that adds up to a lot of money.”
Will GOP congressman Devin Nunes support the latest House immigration bill now backed not just by Democrats but three Republicans? “No” says Nune’s congressional spokesman.
But Niesi Farmers League president Manuel Cunha says with the congressional break this week he hopes”when the state GOP delegation is home this week we think they will get the message that HR 15 is not perfect but it’s a good start “ to get to conference and “on the President’s desk by December 31.”
“I think you will see more of the California delegation coming out in favor of it” says Cunha.“If the bill does not pass this year,Cunha says,“we will have to start all over and in an election year and it is hard to get anything done.” Local papers saw adds encouraging House leader Kevin McCarthy support the bill.
A decertification election is scheduled to be held Tuesday Nov 5 a the Gerawan ranches near Reedley after a see saw battle over the validity of a worker petition.The ranch is one of the largest farm operations in the Central Valley with some 2600 workers. The state Ag Labor Relations Board last Friday reversed a staff decision to halt an election. Staff had argued that Gerawan has inappropriately lobbied workers – contrary to the law. The ALRB’s general counsel had said that some of the signatures appeared to be falsified, and that Gerawan supervisors may have helped in the deertification effort. After that happened some of the workers seeking to decertify the UFW staged protests at ALRB offices.
Workers at the ranch will now vote Tuesday for no union or the UFW with an election being pushed by by Gerawan worker Silvia Lopez who insists “the workers have the right to vote. “
The UFW won an election at Gerawan over 20 years ago but no contract was ever agreed to as both sides blamed each other.
Now the law calls ls for mandatory mediation of a contract dispute that has been going on for months but has had no success.
The UFW says the negotiating committee of workers at the ranch was successful in raising current worker pay from $1 to $2.50 an hour as general labor pay increased from $9 to10 an hour – something that would not have happened without pressure by the union.
But the workers will get the final word. “On Tuesday, November 5th, millions of Americans will go to the polls to choose their elected officials. It is fitting that Gerawan’s workers will be given the chance on that same day to exercise that same sacred right to decide their own economic destiny” said a statement from the Gerawan family.