"We're very concerned about this," said Baldemar Velasquez, the founder of the Toledo-based Farm Labor Organizing Committee. "They will be hearing from us."
The union, which represents more than 7,000 migrant workers in Ohio and Michigan, plans to start a boycott in March against Mt. Olive Pickle Co., the South's largest pickle producer.
Union leaders have been trying to pressure the Mt. Olive, N.C., company into a three-way contract with growers and migrant workers who pick cucumbers. They want the workers to have better wages and living conditions.
Mt. Olive President Bill Bryan said advertisements will be on Cooper's call-in show and radio broadcasts in Ohio, one of more than 20 states where the company sells pickles.
Cooper said he has not signed a contract, but plans to do so. He said he does not know anything about the group's boycott. The university must approve all of its coach's endorsement deals.
Lewis Reinstated: UCLA tailback Jermaine Lewis, suspended for one game by coach Bob Toledo for his involvement in an off-campus fight, was reinstated Monday.
Toledo said Lewis, a starter before his suspension last week, will play Saturday against Oregon at the Rose Bowl, but will not start. Lewis missed the second-ranked Bruins' 52-28 victory at No. 16 Arizona last Saturday.
"He realized he made a big mistake. He's suffered for it," Toledo said. "He told me it's the last time he'll get in trouble."
Lewis filed his own police report with campus authorities two days after the Oct. 4 fight. He claimed to be the victim of battery, but didn't know the identity of the other person involved, campus police spokeswoman Nancy Greenstein said earlier.
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