CA Supreme Court Rules In Favor Of Farm Workers

CALIFORNIA -- A four-year legal battle against a union and farm halted Monday after the California Supreme Court ruled in favor of the United Farm Workers.

The state's highest court issued a unanimous ruling upholding California's law requiring labor contracts for farm workers. Gerawan Farming maintained in their legal battle against the union co-founded by Cesar Chavez that the state law was unconstitutional.

In its 48-page ruling, the court said "As the Board and lower courts have consistently observed, the Legislature intended to reserve the power to decertify labor organization representatives to employees and labor organizations alone. Allowing employers to raise an abandonment defense would frustrate that intent and undermine the Agricultural Labor Relations Act’s comprehensive scheme of labor protections for agricultural employees."

"The Legislature enacted the ALRA in 1975 to 'ensure peace in the agricultural fields by guaranteeing justice for all agricultural workers and stability in labor relations,'" the ruling went on to say. "In enacting the ALRA, the Legislature intended to fill a gap in the labor protections afforded by the federal National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), which exempts 'any individual employed as an agricultural laborer.'"

The ruling was praised by the union, which demanded that Gerawan pay its workers more than $10 million, claiming the money is owed to them.

"Gerawan is exactly the kind of case lawmakers had in mind when they enacted the law because the company has been repeatedly found guilty by the state of California of multiple and serious violations of its workers’ rights, including the right to their union contract," the United Farm Workers said on its website.

United Farm Workers won the right to represent the farm workers at Gerawan Farming, which owns thousands of acres in Fresno and Madera counties, in 1990.

In a press release, the company said it would take its case to the U.S. Supreme Court, claiming that 99 percent of its workers never voted for the union's representation.

"Many were not born in 1990 when the UFW last stood for election as their representatives," the press release said. "Now, despite a history of earning the industry's highest wages, the state wants to force these workers to pay three percent of their wages to the UFW or lose their jobs."

In a Los Angeles Times story published in March, the newspaper found that farm worker pay rose by 13 percent from 2010 to 2015.

"Today, farmworkers in the state earn about $30,000 a year if they work full time — about half the overall average pay in California. Most work fewer hours," the newspaper wrote.

California farm workers produce more than 400 commodities, totaling $47 billion, making the state the leader in agricultural production. About $20 billion is exported, according to the state's annual Agricultural Statistics Review.

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