The Wonderful Company has won an initial victory in court over an attempt by United Farm Workers to unionize its operation in Kern County.
A Kern County Superior Court Judge issued a preliminary injunction to temporarily halt the hearing scheduled between Wonderful and the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board (ALRB).
The backstory: Wonderful’s lawsuit dates back to the so-called card check law – signed by Gov. Newsom in 2022 – that gave farmworkers the ability to sign unionization cards off-site, with unions not having to notify employers about the card.
- UFW submitted 327 authorization cards in March for employees at Wonderful Nurseries, located in Wasco, constituting a majority.
- But nearly 150 Wonderful employees submitted signed declarations to the ALRB saying they did not understand at the time that the cards were votes to unionize, saying UFW held meetings and used $600 in federal relief to bait them into signing them.
- Wonderful filed a lawsuit in May arguing that the law is unconstitutional because it goes too far to cut employers out of the unionization process and does not provide an independent verification process to prove that a majority of employees support unionizing.
The big picture: Kern County Judge Bernard Barmann ruled that Wonderful was likely to prevail in its legal challenge and faced irreparable harm if UFW is allowed to bargain with the state before the lawsuit is dealt with.
- “The court finds that the public interest weighs in favor of preliminary injunctive relief given the constitutional rights at stake in this matter,” Barmann wrote.
What they’re saying: Wonderful Nurseries President Rob Yraceburu said in a statement that the company is gratified by the decision to stop the certification process until the constitutionality of the law can be properly considered.
- “It is a victory for farmworkers, who, like all citizens, deserve the basic right to a fair election, a secret ballot, and a process free of fraud,” Yraceburu said. “In addition, farmworkers had been wrongly barred from objecting to a union being forced on them, and this ruling states that Wonderful indeed has the standing to fight to ensure those constitutional rights of farmworkers, including their due process and First Amendment rights, are not violated.”
- UFW spokesperson Elizabeth Strater said the union hopes the ruling is overturned in an appellate court.
- “The ruling ignores 89 years of labor law precedent saying an employer must go through the election objections process before seeking judicial intervention,” Strater said. “There is already a process to address wrongdoing in elections and Wonderful was in the middle of that process.”
