California’s Supreme Court is set to rule the legality of a law relating to farm workers, which could diminish the power of organized farm labor in the state. The legal battle was launched by the union leader Cesar Chavez and a large fruit farm, and the court is to decide on the constitutionality of a law allowing the state to order that binding contracts are reached by unions and farming companies.
Labor activists claim farmworkers’ conditions could be improved by obligatory mediation and conciliation law. ON the other hand, those who oppose it say the state denies agricultural employers and workers their right to have a say in terms of employment and wages.
Associated Press reports that the 2002 law enables the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board to demand mandatory mediation in achieving a labor contract for agricultural workers, while at the same time giving mediators the power to determine the terms of the agreement.
Unions can ask for mediation three months after seeking to negotiate on behalf of workers.
“The argument when it was enacted was that workers would get all fired up about having a union to represent them and they would vote for the union but then the employer would delay and the workers would lose their enthusiasm,” a farm labor expert said.
The United Farm Workers of America said in the court documents it filed with the Supreme Court that a previous law did not manage to give farm workers the right to bargain with employers. In 2013, the UFW entered a binding mediation with Gerawan Farming, as ordered by the state Agricultural Relations Board.
“This is literally government stepping in and determining the wages and working conditions of a business and enforcing it on the employer and employees without any say whatsoever,” said Dan Gerawan.
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