Salinas, CA – Farm workers employed at Corralitos Farms, LLC, a strawberry grower with operations in Monterey and Santa Cruz counties, said their employer illegally tried to prevent them from voting in favor of joining the United Farm Workers of America during union elections held last week.
Corralitos Farms, which employs approximately 360 strawberry workers in Watsonville and Salinas, is the principal source for the consumer label Santa Cruz Berry Farming Co.
On Sept. 14, a majority of Corralitos Farms workers submitted union authorization cards seeking to be represented by the UFW. A union election took place on Sept. 19, under the supervision of personnel from the Agricultural Labor Relations Board. But farm workers said that in the days leading up to the election, the company’s management engaged in illegal anti-union activity that was in clear violation of the agricultural labor code. The UFW filed over 17 objections on Sept. 26 supported by declarations signed under penalty of perjury from 33 different workers who participated in the election. The union argues that the illegal actions of the employer impacted the votes of at least 27 workers and prevented a fair election from taking place.
The election objections to employer misconduct include threats of discharge, grants of benefits in exchange for not voting for the union, promises of benefits in exchange for not voting for the union, interrogations, interference with access and other hallmark violations of the Agricultural Labor Relations Act.
A law signed last year by Gov. Jerry Brown states that if growers break the law during a union election campaign and thereby deny farm workers their right to have a union, then the ALRB should certify the union as the legitimate collective bargaining representative for the employees. Prior to the Brown rule, there was no remedy when an employer used illegal tactics in a union election.
The new law also accelerated the election objection process when there’s a union election dispute between workers and employers. It also established an approximately six-month time limit for the ALRB to issue a final decision on the election results.
Gov. Brown signed the new law last year after he vetoed a UFW-sponsored reform that would have allowed farm workers to express support for a union by using a process similar to absentee voting. Brown said he was confident his new reform to the existing agricultural labor law was going to effectively stop employers from cheating during union elections. When proposing the law, the governor said the new law "does speed things up, and it does provide a remedy."
This case will be the first test of the Governor’s new law.
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