I’ve learned that the bombshell four-part LA Times series earlier this month implying corruption in the United Farm Workers has triggered a detailed legal counter-attack from the famed union. A 101-page UFW “white paper” on the series and its allegations by veteran reporter Miriam Pawel was delivered to Times editor Dean Baquet on Friday. The union has engaged a Los Angeles law firm with a specialty in libel law, which also on Friday formally presented the publisher of the Times with a 62-page letter demanding a retraction.
In a recent conversation with UFW co-founder Dolores Huerta, she denounced the Times series. “It was completely lacking in political context,” she said. “That reporter didn’t talk to the current union workers. She didn’t concentrate on the law or the ALRB (Agricultural Labor Relations Board). She went looking for people who left many years ago and made some of them out to be great things they are not. You know, we may have made mistakes, but nobody is getting rich. The money goes into operations. Paul Chavez (Cesar’s son, head of a big UFW program) lives in a trailer.”
This is a complex and troubling story, which I’ll delve into when I’m not concentrating on election year politics. Many are disappointed that the UFW has not fulfilled the promise it seemed to have. Many, who wish ill of union organizing among some of the poorest workers in the nation, are gleeful that it has not. There is much more to say, but I’ll conclude for now by saying that the Times series, on which Pawel spent nearly a year of work is, in my opinion, at best incomplete.
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Having the read the series, I would call it thorough and well-researched. I’ll be curious to read why you say it is “incomplete.” If anything, barring the admissions of major factual errors or sloppy reporting, I would expect this series to win some awards.
However, this isn’t a new story though. As Marc Cooper noted on his blog, both he and the Bakersfield Californian reported on the demise of the UFW previously.
This lawsuit sounds suspiciously like a SLAPP suit.
By incomplete, I mean that the story is incomplete. I agree with Huerta that, despite its great length, the series lacked much political context. However, I don’t mean to suggest that this is going to be a great story for the UFW.
I know about my old friend and colleague Marc Cooper’s article last year. I don’t know that the LAT series will win awards; Miriam Pawel was part of the anti-Arnold investigative squad during the recall and that was not an award-winner. Those stories were essentially recycling and updating a Premiere magazine story from a 2001.
The United Farmworkers blew it. They had all the goodwill in the world and politicians lining up to help. If they didn’t go wrong thru corruption how did they go wrong?