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Last summer a fistfight broke out in the fields between two U.F.W. organizers and antiunion workers. In August, 5,000 workers marched through Watsonville--about the same number as at a pro-U.F.W. rally a few weeks later. "Ninety percent of workers don't want a union," says farmer Miles Reiter. "The U.F.W. is trying to win in the court of public opinion what it can't win in the fields."
To keep up the pressure on growers, the U.F.W. is planning a massive Watsonville demonstration next April. Sweeney has pledged to take the campaign "to the streets" if necessary. And key supermarket chains have already signed up to support the strawberry workers. "We're going to win. It's just a question of when," Rodriguez claims. But just as the grape campaign took decades to succeed, the strawberry crusade could go on for years, as both sides settle in for a furrow-by-furrow fight.