The State - News from Oct. 30, 1985

The California Farm Labor Board’s chief attorney said that his state-paid $500 trip to Washington to oppose the United Farm Workers’ grape boycott was justified because he needed to “set the record straight. . . . I’m not going to back down from that. I used some of your money to go back and do this,” David Stirling told a luncheon audience in Sacramento. Stirling said he was in Washington on Oct. 2 and 3 with Gov. George Deukmejian’s “knowledge and approval” to urge the general board of the United Methodist Church not to back the boycott. The trip was justified because, he claimed, the boycott is aimed at his administration of the state farm labor law and could hurt California farmers and farm workers.