The revelation that United Farm Staff can be representing employees at a Kern County firm owned by the state’s wealthiest farming household ought to have been a triumphant second for the storied union co-founded by Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta.
Following many years of diminishing membership within the huge stretches of California’s farm fields, the UFW had seized on a brand new approach to unionize employees, made potential by latest state laws. Fairly than maintain a proper election at an organization job web site, union leaders had invited staff at Great Nurseries, the nation’s largest grapevine nursery, to off-site conferences the place they had been instructed in learn how to apply for $600 in federal aid for farmworkers who labored through the pandemic, in addition to inspired to signal playing cards authorizing the UFW to symbolize them at Great.
Labor specialists say the end result of the UFW-Great skirmish may have outsize ramifications on the way forward for unionizing farmworkers in California.
(Max Whittaker / For the Occasions)
The UFW subsequently filed a petition with the Agricultural Labor Relations Board, asserting {that a} majority of the 600-plus farmworkers at Great Nurseries in Wasco had signed the authorization playing cards and asking that the UFW be licensed as their union consultant. It appeared to mark the UFW’s third victorious unionization drive in a matter of months.
However inside days, Great — a part of the farming empire owned by billionaires Stewart and Lynda Resnick — hit again with an explosive allegation: The corporate accused the UFW of utilizing the $600 in federal aid as bait to trick farmworkers into signing the authorization playing cards. And it submitted almost 150 signed declarations from nursery employees saying that they had not understood that by signing the playing cards they had been voting to unionize.
Stewart and Lynda Resnick in a 2016 portrait
(Ryan Miller / Getty Photos)
Claudia Chavez, a full-time worker of a labor contractor for Great Nurseries, is amongst a number of employees who instructed The Occasions that they attended conferences the place they understood that the UFW would assist them declare the $600. She stated she was given a card to signal, however didn’t know that signing it was a vote for the union.
“They stated clearly — this I do keep in mind — that it was $600 of assist for farmworkers who labored throughout COVID,” Chavez, 43, stated throughout an interview exterior her Wasco dwelling. “However they by no means stated, ‘When you signal, we’re going to return to your work.’”
Union leaders have stood their floor, alleging that the corporate intimidated employees into making false statements and introduced in a labor advisor with a status as a union buster to govern employee feelings within the weeks that adopted.
Antonio De Loera-Brust, UFW’s communications director, known as the allegations that employees had been tricked into signing union playing cards “categorically false.” The union has put ahead different employees who stated they understood what they had been signing and imagine that UFW illustration would enhance their pay and dealing situations.
Nonetheless, what may have been a David-versus-Goliath story has turn out to be one thing tangled and much more troubling. The UFW and Great are locked in battle, every using authorized muscle and PR prowess, and can current their instances to the ALRB, the state company charged with overseeing farm labor disputes and union elections.
Labor specialists say the end result may have outsize ramifications for the way forward for unionizing farmworkers in California. Although nonetheless an influential voice in Democratic management circles, UFW has seen its on-the-ground presence and sway plummet from its vibrant heyday within the Nineteen Sixties and ‘70s. At its peak, UFW had about 80,000 members throughout lots of of farms. Immediately, that quantity has fallen to about 5,000, with one other 2,000 within the Teamsters or United Meals and Industrial Staff Worldwide unions.
If Great is discovered to have engaged in unfair labor practices, it may very well be topic to monetary penalties. But when the union is discovered to have misled employees, it faces a blow to its credibility and its nascent resurgence may very well be stopped in its tracks.
“A technique or one other it’s going to have an effect on the power of farmworkers to arrange,” stated Gaspar Rivera-Salgado, undertaking director on the UCLA Heart for Labor Analysis and Schooling. “If the union fails and it’s a setback to the organizing, it’s going to be an extended whereas earlier than they will discover a foothold to combat for farmworkers in California.”
The UFW-Great skirmish is in some methods an outgrowth of a longer-running conflict between labor leaders and California’s highly effective agricultural pursuits over the UFW’s efforts to streamline the unionization course of.
For years, UFW leaders had argued that the method for unionizing work websites was stacked towards them. Earlier than the brand new system went into impact, farmworkers voted for union illustration by secret poll at a devoted polling occasion, usually held on firm grounds. The UFW contends that left employees susceptible to employer intimidation.
In 2022, Meeting Invoice 2183 sought to permit farmworkers to pick labor illustration by way of mail-in ballots or a system often known as card test, which permits employees to authorize a union by signing playing cards off-site slightly than voting in-person at a delegated polling place.
The UFW organized a 335-mile march to ramp up strain on Gov. Gavin Newsom to signal laws that would offer extra avenues to authorize union illustration at agricultural work websites.
(Hector Amezcua / The Sacramento Bee)
Gov. Gavin Newsom had vetoed the same invoice the earlier 12 months, citing considerations particular to the integrity of the mail-in balloting. His group signaled he would additionally veto AB 2183. However President Biden publicly exhorted Newsom to signal the invoice, and the UFW organized a 335-mile march from Delano to Sacramento to ramp up strain.
Newsom signed the invoice, beneath the situation that it’s amended to restrict sure features. In 2023, the legislation was amended to take away the mail-in poll possibility and cap the variety of work websites that may very well be petitioned by way of card test to 75. It took impact Jan. 1, 2023, and can sundown in 2028.
Beneath the brand new system, a union can search to arrange an agricultural work web site with out notifying an employer. As soon as union representatives collect sufficient authorization playing cards to represent what they imagine is majority help, the union information a petition with the state labor board and the employer. The ALRB should determine whether or not there’s proof a majority of the bargaining unit staff help forming a union.
However as is enjoying out within the Great case, that course of will be appealed.
From the beginning, the brand new system has been shadowed by a scarcity of specifics on the duties of the union and employers within the card test drive. It has taken the ALRB 10 months to publish proposed laws for the brand new legislation, and growers say they really feel they’ve been enjoying a sport with no guidelines.
UFW’s first certification petition beneath card test landed in Stanislaus County in September when it sought to symbolize 250 employees at DMB Packing Corp., often known as DiMare, the place it received 51% help. DiMare submitted a number of objections, together with an allegation that the union obtained signatures by way of “fraud” and “coercion.” The ALRB discovered the allegations lacked proof.
Guadalupe Luna, 55, stated working situations on the tomato packing firm in Newman had been depressing — that that they had no well being advantages, no paid time without work and received paid 77 cents for each bucket of tomatoes collected. Earlier than Luna arrived on the farm a few 12 months in the past, he stated, he labored on a farm in Firebaugh the place the UFW represented employees they usually obtained advantages and higher pay.
Although nonetheless an influential voice in Democratic management circles, the UFW has seen its on-the-ground presence plummet from its vibrant heyday within the Nineteen Sixties and ‘70s.
(Max Whittaker / For the Occasions)
Luna, who’s on the bargaining committee for the union, stated the UFW conferences he attended with co-workers had been targeted on the advantages of unionizing and didn’t embody conversations in regards to the $600 federal aid funds. “The coworkers I spoke with, we talked and there wasn’t that [confusion].” he stated. “We simply talked to them and defined the method.”
DMB Packing President Jeff Dolan stated the corporate is interesting the labor board’s resolution. Nonetheless, he stated, negotiations with the UFW and employees have been “cordial and optimistic.”
In Fallbrook, 50 miles north of San Diego, the UFW submitted a petition in January to symbolize greater than 70 staff at Olive Hill Greenhouses. In response to the ALRB, no objections had been filed, and either side are on the desk to barter their first contract.
Santiago Hernandez was amongst these desirous to unionize employees on the Fallbrook nursery. He stated he instructed colleagues to speak to a UFW organizer and clarify what they wished out of their jobs and determine in the event that they wished to help a union.
The primary assembly, he stated, was about beginning a union they usually obtained the authorization playing cards to contemplate. He stated the final assembly he attended, the place individuals may drop off the playing cards, additionally allowed individuals to enroll in the $600 in aid. He didn’t hear from colleagues about being tricked, he stated, and felt it had been clearly communicated that the 2 weren’t linked.
“The union is right here to assist farmworkers, to not screw with farmworkers,” Hernandez stated.
One of many largest employers within the Central Valley, the Great Co. prides itself on its therapy of farmworkers, together with paying above minimal wage and increasing firm advantages — like free use of its well being facilities and gymnasiums — to full-time staff. Great has additionally invested thousands and thousands of {dollars} in farmworker communities in Kern County, constructing parks and faculties and bettering infrastructure.
The Resnicks, homeowners of FIJI Water, Great Pistachios and POM Great, are main political donors who’ve contributed greater than $220,000 to Newsom’s campaigns alone.
The employees at Great Nurseries’ sprawling complicated in Wasco are inclined to wine and desk grapevines and nut tree rootstocks. In each the corporate and union narratives in regards to the card test episode, the employees have been portrayed as pawns in a a lot bigger sport. The divergent narratives supply little room for a center floor, for instance whether or not there may have been some confusion within the conferences due to a normal lack of knowledge of the UFW’s position.
One of many largest employers within the Central Valley, the Great Co. has invested thousands and thousands of {dollars} in farmworker communities in Kern County.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Occasions)
There does appear to be normal settlement that the organizing conferences for Great staff integrated dialogue of each the federal aid funds and the unionization drive. The U.S. Division of Agriculture has approved a number of organizations to distribute the one-time grants, together with the UFW Basis, which is separate from the labor union.
Rosa Maria Silva de Rodriguez, 40, who has labored at Great Nurseries for 5 years, stated she hosted a number of of the conferences at her dwelling final 12 months. She stated she desires a union as a result of she feels employees are being mistreated. The water offered in 5-gallon coolers was inconsistently refilled and cleaned, she stated. She stated she’s had uncomfortable conditions by which male coworkers made suggestive feedback about girls and he or she knew of no avenue for reporting it.
Silva de Rodriguez stated it was clear on the conferences that the federal aid cash was not tied to signing a union card. The UFW consultant “all the time talked in regards to the rights of employees, what it meant to kind a union, to usher in a union, what the union would do,” Silva de Rodriguez stated.
But different employees interviewed by The Occasions spoke in equally heartfelt phrases about feeling duped.
Maria Pedro, 27, makes $16.30 an hour as a seasonal employee for a labor contractor at Great Nurseries. She likes that the work within the greenhouses is indoors — and due to this fact reliable, even when it rains.
“Look, I simply received dwelling, and I’m clear,” Pedro stated on a latest afternoon, as she sat at a desk in her work garments, khaki-colored pants and a black, long-sleeved shirt.
The employees at Great Nurseries’ sprawling complicated in Wasco are inclined to wine and desk grapevines and nut tree rootstocks.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Occasions)
She described attending a gathering final 12 months at a colleague’s dwelling in Wasco. She stated a UFW consultant was there to assist Pedro and others apply for the $600 federal grant. As a single mom of three, the cash would assist her pay hire and purchase diapers.
Pedro, who emigrated from Guatemala 5 years in the past, stated she had by no means heard of the union. However through the assembly, the rep defined that the group helps farmworkers assert their rights. Pedro signed a number of paperwork. Amongst them was a white card emblazoned with the union’s eagle emblem that reads, in English and Spanish, “I authorize the Union of Farm Staff of America to be my union consultant to collectively negotiate an employment contract with my employer to enhance my wages, working situations and advantages.”
The union rep by no means requested if the employees wished to hitch the union and didn’t clarify the importance of the playing cards, Pedro stated.
On Feb. 23, the UFW filed a petition with the ALRB to symbolize Great Nurseries staff. A number of employees, together with individuals for and towards unionizing, described attending conferences days later, led by an out of doors advisor, Raul Calvo, who has constructed a enterprise advising farm firms on learn how to keep away from unionization. The employees stated Calvo instructed them in regards to the union’s entrance into Great Nurseries and that after the contract was ratified, 3% of their paycheck would go towards union dues.
Pedro stated it was solely then that she realized that, by signing the cardboard, she had voted for the UFW to symbolize her. “Due to him, we understood what was occurring, as a result of the union by no means actually defined what they did,” she stated.
If her title was on the petition, she stated, she wished it eliminated and requested Great for assist. She was among the many employees who signed a declaration.
Silva de Rodriguez, then again, contends Calvo was the primary to recommend staff had been tricked. She stated employees started admitting to supervisors that that they had signed the union card and confronted strain to surrender their help. She stated she has seen employees who as soon as supported the unionization effort now protest towards it.
“It bothers me, however on the similar time, it provides me a bit extra power, as a result of I’m preventing for one thing honest, one thing honest for everybody,” she stated.
The union filed a cost towards Great Nurseries, alleging the corporate required employees to attend a “captive viewers” assembly to induce staff to reject UFW illustration. Great Nurseries maintains it “offered staff with factual details about the method and their rights.”
Calvo confirmed to The Occasions he’s working for the corporate however declined to reply questions on his position.
The ALRB acknowledged receiving employee declarations on March 1 and known as the allegations “severe in nature.” Three days later, the regional director of the labor board moved ahead to certify the union’s petition, figuring out the UFW had submitted 327 legitimate authorization playing cards from a bargaining unit of 640, establishing majority help.
The dispute crystallized final week when about 100 Great Nurseries employees left work and traveled 60 miles north to the labor board’s Visalia workplace. They sported the orange security vests they’re required to put on at work and carried indicators studying, “We don’t desire a union! Hearken to our voices. Don’t ignore us.”
Whereas the corporate and two members who spoke with The Occasions had been adamant the demonstration was worker-led, the UFW has filed a cost with the board alleging that Great Nurseries coerced employees into attending.
About 100 staff of Great Nurseries who say the UFW used misleading techniques in its unionization drive stage a protest on the Agricultural Labor Relations Board in Visalia.
(Courtesy of Claudia Chavez)
Final week, in yet one more escalation, a Central Valley legislation agency that regularly represents the UFW filed fees with the state Civil Rights Division on behalf of seven employees, together with Silva de Rodriguez, alleging that Great Nurseries doesn’t present sexual harassment coaching, leading to a “hostile work setting.”
Great fired again, dismissing the fees as “bogus claims.” In a press release, firm President Rob Yraceburu stated each supervisor, together with these employed by way of third events, is in compliance with all obligatory coaching, and that the corporate offered the UFW with its worker handbook, which incorporates its harassment coverage, per week earlier than the fees had been filed.
“It’s getting tougher to maintain up with the fireplace hose of lies the UFW is pushing of their effort to divert consideration from their fraudulent conduct in a vote determined by simply seven votes, however the place greater than 150 farmworkers say they had been misled,” Yraceburu stated.
Great has appealed the UFW certification. The state labor board is predicted to fulfill this month to contemplate the corporate’s objections.
This text is a part of The Occasions’ fairness reporting initiative, funded by the James Irvine Basis, exploring the challenges going through low-income employees and the efforts being made to handle California’s financial divide.
