Ranchers organize vote on feedlot union issue Ranchers for Country Natural Beef posted election notices Tuesday to settle a long-simmering dispute over whether workers at the feedlots that handle their cattle want to join the United Farmworkers Union. Stacy Davies, who manages the massive Roaring Springs Ranch in Frenchglen and is on the board of Country Natural Beef, says boycotts organized by the union have hurt them economically and calling in the governor and religious leaders to settle the dispute has not worked, so they are holding their own election. The 85 workers at Beef Northwest Feeders feedlots in Nyssa, Boardman and Quincy, Wash., will vote next week, with results to be announced Nov. 10, Davies said. Farm Workers National Vice President Erik Nicholson said they already have signed cards, verified by a third party, from a majority of workers indicating they want to join the union, and charged that intimidation of workers made any new election invalid....So why does the UFW oppose the secret ballot? Watch for national legislation to ok these card signing schemes as the Dem's take over.