After a five-year delay a California agency has given farm workers permission to cut ties with their labor union.
Employees at Gerawan Farming voted overwhelmingly to split with United Farm Workers in 2013 only to see the ballot box locked up by the California Agricultural Labor Board (ALRB). The agency, however, refused to tally those votes until state appellate court ordered they be revealed. The ALRB decided to affirm the vote after counting the ballots—workers voted 1,098 to 197 to leave the unions—saying that the unlawful actions alleged by the union did not affect the results.
"IT IS CERTIFIED that a majority of the valid ballots have been cast for 'No Union' in the representation election," the order says (emphasis in the original). "We find that Gerawan's unlawful conduct did not interfere with the employees' free choice to such an extent that it affected the outcome of the election."
The UFW disputes the certification. The labor organization told the Washington Free Beacon that any finding of conduct that violated federal or state labor law compromised the results of the secret ballot election. Union spokesman Armando Elenes said the voters who chose to cut ties with the union were "cynically coerced and manipulated" by Gerawan.
"The ALRB is still obligated by law to consider Gerawan's numerous blatant violations of the law in determining whether the election was valid," Elenes said. "This ALRB decision tells employers they can get away with repeated and serious lawbreaking."
The agency had blocked the vote count after an administrative law judge determined that the company "unlawfully inserted itself into the electoral process." It accused Gerawan of allowing anti-union employees to gather signatures on company time while refusing the same opportunity to UFW supporters. The company, according to agency findings, also gave workers the privilege of campaigning while relieving them of work responsibilities. Elenes said the agency should have stuck by its allegations and that certifying the five-year-old results "failed to protect farm workers' most basic democratic right."
Gerawan celebrated the ALRB ruling, saying that it honored the wishes of workers, rather than that of labor representatives. Owners of the family-owned company called it a "long overdue acknowledgment" for the democratic right of their employees. The company took aim at the agency for waiting until a court order to count the votes. It praised workers for maintaining their legal fight to have their votes counted while admonishing the ALRB for delaying the results of the election.
"We are inspired by their struggle to vindicate their right to vote and to decide for themselves whether they want a union," Gerawan said in a statement. "We are humbled by their refusal to abandon that fight, in spite of the ALRB's multimillion-dollar effort to destroy ballots rather than to count their votes."
The UFW still has the ability to appeal the certification.