OpEd

On Cliffstar contracts 

By Gregory Gitter, President,  Wisconsin Cranberry Cooperative

5/1/02 -- In a  letter sent today to James Gloss- Director of Fruit Procurement, Cliffstar Corporation  the Wisconsin Cranberry Cooperative is strongly objecting to the recent actions of Cliffstar representatives in asking Wisconsin growers to sign a new growers agreement which clearly is not in the best interest of the individual grower. 

I have received a copy of Mr. Gloss’s letter dated April 19, 2002 in which you advise Wisconsin Cliffstar growers to schedule an appointment no later than Friday April 26, 2002 to discuss a “contract extension”. Upon arrival for their individual grower meetings, Cliffstar representatives presented a new growers marketing agreement and asked the growers to sign this agreement. 

Under general business practices a grower should be provided with the proposed marketing agreement and given sufficient time to review the proposed contract with an attorney, business associates, family, etc. 

The Wisconsin Cranberry Cooperative is voicing our concerns for our Cliffstar members, and the Cliffstar growers on our waiting list for future membership. Specifically there are two areas of this marketing agreement that the Cooperative finds unacceptable: 

Item 2. Price (a) The prices paid for the Cranberries for each crop year during which this Agreement is in effect will be determined by the Processor.    

Under these terms the individual growers is not guaranteed a fair price for their fruit based on any quantifiable factor such as:  Ocean Spray  plus $3.00 or any other verifiable pricing structure. 

Item 19. Consent to Jurisdiction: Each party to this Agreement hereby (a) consents to the jurisdiction of the United States District Court for the Western District of New York or, if such court does not have jurisdiction over such matter, the applicable state court in the State of New York, County of Erie and (b) irrevocably agrees that all actions or proceeding arising out of or relating to this Agreement shall be litigated in such court. 

Requiring a Wisconsin grower to file any legal claims, in the jurisdiction of New York State is unreasonable and  should  not be accepted by any Wisconsin Grower. I have experienced this legal jurisdiction issue before during a Clement-Pappas contract proposal, in  which the company reinstated Wisconsin jurisdiction after the Clement-Pappas growers objected to this contract language.           

I believe that it is in the best interest of our Cliffstar members to not accept this new contract offer, and after fulfilling their legal obligation under their current Cliffstar contracts, to carefully analyze the multiple  offers currently available to any grower without a contract. 

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