Santa Maria Sun / Cover Story

Farmworkers with 401Ks

'Certified sustainable' wine brings a harvest of benefits

BY KATHY JOHNSTON

Taking care Creating sustainable wine involves paying attention to human and natural resources. The hardworking vineyard workers are paid higher-than-normal wages and earn benefits. PHOTO BY STEVE E MILLER

It’s noon on the final day of wine-grape harvest, and Berta Gonzalez and Maria Cerna eat their homemade tacos, sharing stories and laughing together as they sit in the shade of an unusual trailer parked at the edge of a local vineyard. It beats crouching in the dirt in the hot sun at lunchtime, Mendoza agrees.

 

The curving canopy of the specially made rolling lunchroom isn’t the only way these farmworkers are covered. Under a new Central Coast certification program for sustainability, the hardworking vineyard crews are covered for medical insurance and earn much more than minimum wage. Some farmworkers are learning how to manage their 401K retirement accounts, matched dollar for dollar by their employers.

 

“Sustainability in Practice”—or SIP—certification recently developed by the Central Coast Vineyard Team includes a point system for the “three E’s” of sustainability, often referred to as three legs of a stool: ecology, economics, and equity. The SIP-certified seal, a voluntary program that was years in the making, now appears on 50,000 cases of Central Coast wines from more than 30 wineries, produced from 11,000 acres of local vineyards.

 

Savvy wine consumers are starting to notice as local tasting rooms begin to promote the distinctive SIP seal of approval, with the marketing slogan, “SIP the good life” and a website, sipthegoodlife.org.

 

“The sustainable certification is about looking at farming operations from a holistic perspective,” said Peter Work, owner and winemaker of one of the first vineyards to achieve the sustainability seal of approval, ampelos cellars and vineyard in the Santa Rita Hills near Lompoc.

 

Taking a brief rest from harvesting the last of his grapes alongside a crew of vineyard workers, Work added, “The soil, the plants, the weather, as well as the people, are very important—the people working in the vineyard, and the people who are neighbors.”

 

Seal of approval Nearly 50,000 cases of wine now bear the “Sustainability in Practice,” or SIP, seal on their labels. PHOTO BY STEVE E. MILLER

He’s part of the Central Coast Vineyard Team, a national award-winning local network of farmers dedicated to sustainable agriculture research and education. The team’s director, Kris O’Connor, explained the philosophy behind the new SIP certification: “A lot of times people think sustainability is environmental. But sustainability also has a human resources component. Anybody in agriculture considers people their most valuable resource, and the SIP standards reward that—and require that.

 

“I know lots of consumers care about the social responsibility side,” she added. “They care about decent lifestyles, access to education, access to advancement.”

 

And wine drinkers can be sure the certification isn’t just window-dressing: It’s been approved by experts from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, University of California, and the Natural Resources Defense Council, and all documentation supplied by growers is independently verified.

 

Industry insiders agree that social equity in agriculture is a hot-button issue today, with opinions polarized over immigration.

 

 The wine industry, one of Santa Barbara County’s biggest agricultural moneymakers, is built upon Hispanic labor. Under the shiny purple skins of the recently harvested clusters of grapes are the toil and sweat of brown-skinned workers, most of whom are Central Coast residents rather than migrants, according to their employers.

 

“We’re lucky to have an unbelievable workforce from Mexico. They work hard. We have to take as good care of them as we can. I don’t know what we’d do without them,” Work said.

 

PHOTO BY STEVE E. MILLER

Fair employment practices that eliminate discrimination are at the heart of the social equity section of the sustainable certification, along with a safe and fair work environment. Achieving the SIP standards requires agricultural businesses to be “progressive in their thought process,” according to the introduction to the lengthy document.

 

Dana Merrill, president of Mesa Vineyard Management, Inc., said treating vineyard workers well is good for business and good for people.

 

“Oppressed people just don’t do very good work,” Merrill explained.

 

His labor-contracting company employs 100 full-time and around 200 part-time people—60 percent of them women—who take care of thousands of acres of vineyards from Los Alamos to San Ardo. Half of the foremen are women, and many of the seasonal workers return to the company year after year. During nearly 30 years in business, he said, it’s been “rare” for any Anglo to apply for a job in the vineyards.

 

His brother, Kevin Merrill, president of Santa Barbara County Farm Bureau, runs the company’s Los Alamos office, which employs about 100 farmworkers from the Santa Maria area. The brothers have deep roots in the local area, as seventh generation farmers descended from some of the earliest families to settle the land: de la Cuesta, Tefft, and Dana.

 

PHOTO BY STEVE E. MILLER

“We’ve come from the bottom. We know how hard the work is,” Kevin said. “We started driving tractors when we were 7 or 8 years old. We’ve picked walnuts. We realize if you treat people well, they’ll do a good job for you.”

 

The company’s vineyard manager, Gregg Hibbits, is a fourth-generation local farmer whose family has owned land in the Lompoc Valley for more than a hundred years. He says his father, Art Hibbits, has always treated his farm employees well.

 

“People who are happy with their job make much better workers,” he said. “If you feel well cared for, and well paid for your work, you don’t have that to worry about.”

 

Dana Merrill and Hibbits helped write the social equity portion of SIP certification, which goes well beyond state and federal labor requirements. It was peer-reviewed by 60 people, Hibbits noted. Everyone worked together to include provisions not always associated with farmworkers: employee performance evaluations, a grievance and complaint process, and a disciplinary program with stepped procedures and opportunities for employee input.

 

“It’s a heartfelt, experiential system, based on what we think is important, not concocted by a bunch of liability attorneys,” Dana said. “It was a genuine effort by growers to put a meaningful protocol together.”

 

Rich harvest Peter Work of ampelos cellars and vineyard near Lompoc owns one of the first “certified sustainable” vineyards. He offers English classes to his Hispanic employees to help them get ahead. PHOTOS BY STEVE E. MILLER

The company pays 100 percent of health insurance costs for all its employees, including fieldworkers, during the vineyard season, plus vacation and holiday pay and extra incentives to reward a safe work record. Education and training are emphasized, and wages they pay are higher than the state minimum.

 

“We offer a 401K to everybody,” Dana said. “We pay dollar for dollar on the first 5 percent. The seasonal people have really caught on. They’re putting money in it.”

 

“The women are especially interested,” said Esther Kosty, Mesa’s bilingual human resources manager, “so we’re educating them on setting themselves up for the long term. We let them know they can borrow from it to send a kid to college or buy a house.”

 

 Dana just returned from a daylong training session in Guadalupe, required for his labor-contractor’s license. Around the conference table in Mesa’s Templeton office, he discussed the “Top 10” concerns of fieldworkers.

 

Fringe benefits, a good rate of pay, safety regulations, opportunities for advancement, a team approach to management, a grievance process, and tasks for older workers are on the list, Dana told Hibbits and Kosty. The No. 1 concern: respectful and fair treatment.

 

Kosty, a Hispanic herself, said respect is especially important in the culture.

 

“Social equity certification is pushing you toward these Top 10,” Dana said. “The whole idea of the social equity side of sustainability, it does add to your cost, but I think people work harder, they’re healthier, they’re happier.

 

“We do basically have a good story to tell,” he continued. “They make more in an hour than they’d make in a day in Mexico, and they’re doing jobs nobody wants to do.”

 

His brother Kevin noted, “It’s important that consumers know that with all the work that goes into that bottle of wine, the people are treated well. Wine drinkers can feel comfortable enjoying the fruits of hard work without feeling guilty.”

 

Social equity Vineyard workers at ampelos cellars are paid by the hour, not the ton, to pick these SIP-certified wine-grapes at ampelos vineyard. PHOTO BY STEVE E. MILLER

Both Mesa Vineyard Management and another large Central Coast farm-labor contractor, Pacific Vineyard Company, treat their workers to twice-yearly appreciation barbecues in recognition of a job well done, with prizes for vineyard crews with an accident-free season.

 

At Pacific Vineyard Company’s harvest barbecue—in the shade of the sycamore trees at Biddle Park in rural Arroyo Grande on the day after picking finished—farmworkers Mendoza and Cerna were hard to spot without the head-to-toe clothing covering their skin in the company’s shade trailer a day earlier. Like their workmates—many of whom live in Santa Maria—they attended the barbecue with their families, and everyone was dressed for a fiesta.

 

People who’ve worked with Pacific Vineyard Company for five years, or multiples of five, were due to receive a free jacket this year. Everyone got a knitted cap to help keep warm during vineyard pruning this coming winter. Smiling children lined up for a toy, then excitedly ran to their parents to show off what they received. A picnic table was loaded with dozens of raffle prizes, useful items like a Leatherman tool, an electric shiatsu pillow massager, an ice chest, a coffeemaker, flashlights. Grand prizes were a karaoke machine and a flat-screen TV—just what Mendoza and Cerna joked is missing from the shade trailer.

 

The foremen and supervisors were barbecuing the carne asada, and soon everyone’s plate was loaded up with hefty piles of meat, spicy rice, plump white beans, fresh green and red salsa, grilled jalapeno peppers, and a stack of corn tortillas freshly made in Santa Maria.

 

“They’re hard, hard workers. They take a lot of pride in what they do,” said George Donati, general manager of Pacific Vineyard, while handing out plates at the front of the food line.

 

“Social equity is something we believe in,” explained office manager Mary Cooper. “We cover our employees for health insurance, and pay them more than the minimum wage. Sometimes the public is misinformed; they don’t realize how much vineyards do take care of people.”

 

Smiling at the crewmembers, she said, “They’re the unsung heroes. Without them, no one would be enjoying any wine.”

 

PHOTO BY STEVE E. MILLER

Winemaker Christian Rogeunant of Baileyana-tangent poured a taste of his latest vintage into a plastic picnic cup for Jean-Pierre Wolff, owner and winemaker of Wolff Vineyards, as the barbecue smoke wafted through shafts of autumn sunlight under the trees. Their vines are cared for by Pacific Vineyard workers, and the wines they make carry the SIP seal.

 

For Wolff, one of the first viticulturists to earn the sustainability certification, another part of the social equity section is also significant: neighbor relations. That’s especially important as more people move from urban areas to new housing developments in agricultural areas.

 

“An honest interchange of information is essential to lessen potential conflicts,” the introduction to the social equity section states. “When growers provide a progressive response to complaints, they encourage mutual respect and understanding where confusion and distrust have existed in the past.”

 

Donati said he’s set up a system for his neighbors to call him if they have a problem with lights shining into their homes or noise from bird-scaring devices, so he can take care of their complaints.

 

The weekly English classes offered by the company are on hold now, with many of the vineyard workers already laid off until pruning time in January. After the barbecue, some will switch to working in Santa Maria’s vegetable or strawberry fields, while others will be heading out of town for family gatherings over the holidays.

 

English lessons provided by ampelos vineyard owner Work have helped his workers advance. Six years ago, he said, he couldn’t communicate at all with his Hispanic employees. Now, they converse fluently, and one employee has become a naturalized U.S. citizen. Another built up enough skills to get a better position at a bigger winery.

 

Work also provides a plot of land next to the vineyard where his employees can grow their own peppers, tomatoes, corn, and beans. Paid vacation and holidays, paid cell phones, and free cases of wine are also part of the package, with profit sharing a goal for the future.

 

“Once we see a profit, when we get to the point where we’re in the black, we won’t just stick it in our pockets,” he said. “We’ll share it.”

 

PHOTO BY STEVE E. MILLER

With the local wine industry so dependent on a Hispanic workforce, farm-labor contractors and viticulturists are calling for immigration reform.

 

“Say what you want about immigration problems—the reality is we need people to do the work. People here don’t want to do it,” said Kevin Merrill. “We really need a comprehensive program to get people here on a legal basis, like the Bracero Program but better. They’re not, they’re just not, taking jobs away from people here. They really add to the community. They pay Social Security. They’re hard workers, not troublemakers.”

 

Michael Blank, directing attorney of the San Luis Obispo office of California Rural Legal Assistance, said he’s “delighted” that employers are taking care of workers in the vineyards. Sustainability, Blank said, makes sense since we have to live in harmony with people and the planet.

 

“Really well-cared-for workers are productive workers,” he said. “This emphasis on social equity is a great start, and it would be wonderful if it spread to the entire wine industry, with guilt-free, socially just wine.

 

“Farmworkers are part of our community,” he continued. “They live with us. You judge the quality of a society by how it treats its least-powerful members.”

 

Blank pointed out that the local wine industry has come a long way since he filed a complaint against a large Paso Robles winery in 1990, after worker complaints of substandard living and working conditions.

 

“I’m very happy to see progress in some vineyards since the bad days of the ‘bitter harvest,’” Blank said.

 

“I’d encourage wine connoisseurs to drink wine created with social equity so everyone can share in the richness of the harvest,” he summed up.

 

Award-winning environmental journalist Kathy Johnston can be reached through the executive editor at rmiller@
santamariasun.com.