Agricultural giant Wonderful Co. and United Farm Workers caught in legal battle over union law

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. — Protesters gathered outside Kern County Superior Court Wednesday to protest a case that could have major ramifications for farm labor organizers in the San Joaquin Valley and beyond.

California agricultural giant Wonderful Co. is suing the state’s Farm Labor Relations Board in a legal challenge to the 2022 law that streamlines the union voting process for farm workers.

Assembly Bill 2183 allows union organizers to conduct union authorization votes at a location of their choosing, in a process called card checks. Union votes previously took place in the workplace under the supervision of employer and union representatives.

Gov. Gavin Newsom and his predecessors had vetoed previous versions of the law. The Democratic leader conceded following a march by farm workers to the state capitol in 2022 and pressure even from President Joe Biden – who keeps a bust of United Farm Workers union co-founder Cesar Chavez in the Oval Office.

Dozens of UFW supporters carried signs outside the Bakersfield courthouse in sweltering heat early Wednesday, shouting:Whether you can» and other pro-labor chants.

“We fought too hard and too long to let a company and a group of people who have no qualms take it over,” said farmworker Xochitl Nunez. “It’s about respect and the right to organize without intimidation.”

The counterprotesters — workers who say they don’t want to be part of the union — also took to the courtroom parking lot, with their own chants and signs, some of which said in Spanish: “Hear our voices!

Not all workers agree with the union

Wednesday’s hearing in Kern County is the latest in a legal jujitsu fight now involving multiple judges and state agencies.

A separate case was launched after more than 100 employees of Wonderful Nurseries in Wasco filed affidavits alleging the UFW misled them into signing union authorization cards when it was supposed to help them get a $600 pandemic relief benefit. The claims follow the March certification of the UFW chapter, which represents more than 600 Wasco nursery employees. The UFW denies these allegations.

“We don’t want the union. We were robbed,” said Irma Rubio, caretaker of Wasco Nurseries. “We settled on $600, and that’s it. They lied to us.

An independent investigator from the Farm Labor Relations Board is looking into allegations of misconduct by Wonderful and the UFW regarding the union vote.

Ramifications of the legal challenge to the union law

This week’s case in Kern County Superior Court represents a challenge to the underlying card control law itself.

In court, Wonderful Co.’s attorneys alleged their due process rights were violated when the ALRB refused to turn over signed union cards to the employer, comparing the process to “Kabuki theater.”

The UFW and ALRB argued that decades of case law support this precedent, which is in place to protect workers from possible retaliation, their lawyers said. They also questioned whether a higher court should have jurisdiction over the case.

If Wonderful’s request for an injunction is granted, the ongoing ARLB hearing and the Card Control Act itself would be put on hold while the case proceeds. Judge Bernard C. Barmann, Jr. is expected to issue a decision in the coming weeks.

A third hearing is also expected to take place before an administrative law judge after the ALRB’s general counsel investigated Wonderful Nurseries in April and discovered several alleged workplace violations.

These included allegations that Wonderful consultants helped draft union terminations for employees and held anti-union meetings during work hours.