For a year we have reported on the farm workers for Gerawan putting up with high-handedness, bureaucratic delay and abuse by state labor officials. The workers entered into a contract with the United Farm Workers 20 years ago. But the UFW failed to do anything for the workers, so the workers want a divorce.

The union is a shadow of what it was under famed founder Cesar Chavez, who died in 1993. The workers don’t want to pay high dues for nothing. But the Brown administration officials have sided with the union.

The workers now are led by Silvia Lopez, featured in the nearby picture in front of Gov. Jerry Brown’s office.

According to an announcement by Americans for Tax Reform, which is siding with the workers:

Ms. Lopez will speak at a protest held at the ALRB regional offices in Visalia beginning at 3:00 p.m. today, August 26.  Supporters of the United Farm Workers were also expected to have a presence, though Center for Worker Freedom Executive Director Matt Patterson says he hopes the proceedings will unfold without incident.

“The Gerawan workers have a positive message that they want to deliver peacefully: They just want their votes counted,” said Patterson. “We hope the union, and the ALRB, will allow Ms. Lopez and her colleagues to speak their mind.”

Lopez is also challenging the ALRB in court, suing individual board members including Genevieve Shiroma, Cathryn Rivera-Hernandez, and J. Antonio Barbosa in Federal District Court for violating her First and Fourteenth Amendment rights. 

Lopez attorney Paul J. Bauer explained:

“In order to protect the rights of the farmworkers, we filed a lawsuit in federal court against the ALRB board members and regional director for violating their civil rights.  The farmworkers’ due process rights and First Amendment rights are being trampled by a group of people that will stop at nothing to keep the votes from being counted.”

Recently U.S. District Court Judge Lawrence J. O’Neill allowed the suit to move forward.

Although the UFW officially has represented the workers for two decades, many workers charge that it has done nothing for them. The vote was whether or not to decertify the UFW as the workers’ representative.

The workers voted on Nov. 5. But so far the votes have not been counted by the ALRB. By contrast, the dispute over the 2000 presidential election vote and recount in Florida, Bush vs. Gore, took just 36 days to resolve.

Of the nearly 3,000 Gerawan Farming employees who potentially voted, 800 of their ballots have been challenged by the UFW. The ballots have been sealed and will not be opened until there is a court hearing, which is not anticipated to take place for months.

Neither the ALRB nor the UFW have explained why the ballots were challenged. Attorneys representing both Gerawan Farming and the workers suggested this is a stalling tactic.

As the ALRB has been silent since the November election, I recently contacted the board, and asked J. Antonio Barbosa, ALRB Executive Secretary, what was going on.

Barbosa emailed me his response and said, “This is a complicated case that does not lend itself to simple answers.”

Q: What is the status of the employee votes and count? Why are the results not yet available?

Barbosa:  “The results of the election are not available because multiple issues must be resolved before the results of the decertification election will be final.  In this election, the eligibility of a very large number of voters was challenged.  The Board will determine which of those challenges must be set for an evidentiary hearing in order to be resolved.  The ballots of those individuals found to be ineligible after the hearing and the resolution of any requests for review of the hearing examiner’s recommended decision will not be counted.

“Parties may also file election objections arguing that the election should be set aside because of misconduct that allegedly affected the outcome of the election.  In this matter, the UFW has filed 32 objections, the Employer has filed seven objections and the Decertification Petitioner has filed 13 objections.  The Board is in the process of determining which of the objections should be set for a hearing, and a Board Decision and Order on the objections will issue soon. The hearing on objections could either lead to the setting aside of the election or certification of the election results by the ALRB.

“Finally, in this matter a number of unfair labor practice (ULP) charges relating to the election have been filed with the Visalia ALRB Regional Office. Some of the ULP matters may be resolved in a consolidated hearing with the election objections.  It is impossible to predict how long these processes will take.  The Board is following the time lines set forth in section 1156.3(i) of the Agricultural Labor Relations Act; however it is likely that a hearing or hearings to resolve the above matters will be very lengthy.

“Insofar as the number of ULPs that are pending, investigation of ULPs is under the jurisdiction of the Office of the General Counsel.  Please contact the General Counsel’s office at (916) 653-2690 or the Visalia Regional Director at (559) 627-0995 for this information.”

Origins of the dispute

Almost two months ago, she profiled Silvia Lopez, the farm worker who was fighting UFW representation being force on Gerawan’s workers without their consent. Grimes spent half a day with Lopez and the workers when they protested at the ALRB offices and at the Capitol. “I never once saw another reporter or media person,” Grimes said.

At first, the Brown administration and the California Agricultural Relations Board resisted the workers’ pleas to allow a vote, as required by the 1975 Agricultural Labor Relations Act, as Grimes reported in another article.

The articles gained widespread readership in Sacramento and among the state’s farming community. The outcry led to the ALRB granting a vote for the Gerawan workers, as Grimes then reported on Nov. 3.

These stories were scoops, not reported elsewhere.

Finally, the Sacramento Bee is covering the controversy, quoting Lopez (pictured above).

Better late than never, I guess. But it would have been nice if they had given Grimes credit for breaking the story and keeping it alive.

Thousands of farm workers in the Central Valley object to unionization under a collective bargaining agreement with the United Farm Workers. As I have detailed, they say the Agricultural Labor Relations Board is forcing them into the collective bargaining agreement anyway.

The workers of Gerawan Farming collected 2,000 co-workers’ signatures in September and delivered a petition to the ALRB to decertify the United Farm Workers union. But the ALRB declared the signatures were forged and denied the petition.

Undaunted, the workers started over, and this time delivered a second petition with 3,000 signatures to the Agricultural Labor Relations Board Visalia office last Friday.

But by Monday. they heard the second petition was also rejected, under questionable circumstances.

“We are very sad that our government is working against us,” said Silvia Lopez in a statement following the ALRB decision Monday.  “We just want the right to vote.”

 ALRB ‘stepped in it’

Assemblyman Jim Patterson, R-Fresno, said in an interview on KMJ radio Thursday, the Visalia ALRB “stepped in it,” when they declared the second petition was no good. Patterson said the Sacramento ALRB had to intervene and straighten up the petition procedures.

The Visalia ALRB office appeared to prevent the signatures from even being counted this time. Workers have had many run-ins with ALRB Visalia Regional Director Silas Shawver in their quest to be rid of the UFW.

But once the signatures were officially counted and verified, the ALRB confirmed a “showing of interest.” This decision means the farm workers need to hold an election to decertify the UFW within seven days of turning the petition in.

But, the ALRB can, and may still, block the election at any time.

“ ‘Farm worker’ does not equal UFW any more,” said the workers’ attorney, Paul Bauer, also interviewed on KMJ radio Thursday. “They can speak for themselves.”

Bauer represents Silvia Lopez, the Gerawan Farming employee who has been leading the drive to decertify the UFW.

“No communication to the workers in 20 years from the UFW — they want a vote now,” Bauer said. Bauer was referring to the amount of time the UFW has abandoned Gerawan’s workers. After winning an election in 1990, the UFW disappeared, never to be hear from until October 2012, apparently in search of new dues-paying members.

“The UFW is ‘offering’ her a pay cut to let them come back, as well as 3 percent of her pay,” Bauer said.

Why the UFW picked Gerawan

Not only did the Gerawan Farming workers recently tell me they think the UFW deal stinks, they really like their employer.

Silvia Lopez’s parents worked for Gerawan Farming. Silvia has worked there for more than 15 years, and her daughters also work for Gerawan.

Bauer said Gerawan Farming is the largest farming employer in the area, and probably why the UFW targeted the 5,000 Gerawan employees for unionization. “Winning this one is like winning the Super Bowl,” KMJ radio talk show host Chris Daniels added.

UFW membership has dwindled to below 4,000 members from a high of 50,000 in the 1970’s, shrinking in size and relevance.

Bauer said with all of the regulations and labor laws in California to protect workers, labor unions are no longer needed. “People like Miss Lopez are treated very well. They like working there,” Bauer added.

Bauer said the UFW picked on the wrong company. Gerawan employees like their employer, they like their jobs, they like their pay and benefits.

It is evident the UFW grossly miscalculated on this one.

“They didn’t count on a Silvia Lopez,” Bauer said. “She’s a true civil rights leader. She works hard, has encountered difficulties, and her heart is big.”

Daniels asked Bauer, “If the UFW is so sure of their value to workers, why not put it to a vote?”

“If you are a farm worker, they think you aren’t smart enough to represent yourself, and must be a UFW member,” Bauer said. “It’s very humbling to meet people like Miss Lopez, who are willing to stop at nothing to do the right thing.”

UPDATE: It was reported the Agricultural Labor Relations Board has reversed its Monday decision, which would have blocked the Gerawan farm workers’ second attempt to hold an election to determine if the United Farm Workers of America should represent them. The ALRB will now process and count the new petition signatures. If 1,500 signatures are validated, an election could be held by the end of this week.

SACRAMENTO — Thousands of farm workers in the Central Valley object to unionization under a collective bargaining agreement with the United Farm Workers. But they’re being forced into the agreement anyway.

On Monday, the Agricultural Labor Relations Board turned down the farm workers’ petitions, delivered last Friday, to decertify the UFW. The farm workers also will not be allowed a vote on union representation, despite an ALRB rule which stipulates, “Under the Agricultural Labor Relations Act, farm workers have the right to choose whether or not they wish to be represented by a union by voting in a secret ballot election.”

Gov. Jerry Brown appointed all the current ALRB members. And a former UFW lobbyist, Martha Guzman Aceves, was appointed by Brown as his deputy legislative secretary for agriculture, environment and natural resources, working in Brown’s Capitol office. As I detailed in an Oct. 14 story, Guzman-Aceves has a long history of working for the UFW and has close ties to other pro-UFW organizations. Yet Brown delegated to her dealing with the pleas of the rebel farm workers. Monday’s petition rejection was the second time the ALRB rejected a petition by the farm workers. The first time was on Sept. 19.

Questions have been raised about the relationship between the ALRB, a government agency, and the UFW. During an August 21, 2013 court proceeding, Judge Jeffrey Y. Hamilton said, “So the Court is very suspect of, one, the ALRB’s position here.  It almost seems like it’s in cahoots.  And the Court finds it very troubling that the ALRB is taking such a position, especially sitting in a prosecutorial role.” (See copies of excerpts of the court transcript, below.)

The new Cesar Chavez

Because of her relentless championing of the rights of farm workers, Silvia Lopez has been called the new Cesar Chavez. Ironically, she is fighting against the union Chavez co-founded; but which has fallen far from his lofty ideals, according to a 2012 article in The Nation, a liberal magazine, “Cesar Chavez and the Farmworkers: What Went Wrong?”

Lopez, a long-time farm worker with Gerawan Farming, said the ALRB claimed the thousands of signatures she gathered on the first petition were forged. But Lopez (pictured nearby in front of the governor’s office) said she personally collected nearly all of the 2,000 signatures.

I spent several hours recently with Lopez. She is serious and thoughtful. She said she just wants the workers to be able to continue to work at Gerawan Farming under the optimum conditions they currently enjoy — without interference from the UFW.

New signatures, new petition

When Lopez delivered another 3,000 all-new signatures to the ALRB last Friday, she demanded an election before a collective bargaining agreement with the UFW is imposed on them. According to her attorneys, despite Lopez’s arrival at the Visalia ALRB offices at 1:00 p.m., the ALRB  claimed she was too late.

“We are very sad that our government is working against us,” said Lopez in a statement following the ALRB decision Monday.  “We just want the right to vote.”

This time, rather than claiming the new 3,000 signatures were forged, the ALRB claimed to have taken action on the terms of a collective bargaining agreement on Friday, three days before she filed her petition, according to Lopez’s attorneys.

Workers want to be non-union

Farm employees from Gerawan Farming have been trying to get the UFW out of their workplace since October 2012. At that time the union, desperate for new members, reappeared out of the blue after doing nothing since 1990, to impose a contract on Gerawan Farming and its 3,000-5,000 employees.

This incited the workers, who describe their working conditions as optimum. Gerawan farming  pays high wages and benefits, including retirement, vacation pay and even the tuition for the workers’ children at the local Catholic St. La Salle School.

“Once a contract is imposed on our workers, it will double or even triple the size of the UFW’s current membership,” Dan Gerawan told me; he’s the president of Gerawan Farming, a family-owned business in Reedley which employs more than 5,000 farm workers. “So, more than half of the UFW’s membership will never have been given the opportunity to express whether they even want the UFW to represent them.

“And with perpetual mediation being a possibility under SB25, my employees may never have that opportunity to vote, yet will have to pay 3 percent of their wages [as union dues] or lose their jobs.”

SB 25 is by state Senate President Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento. It would allow the UFW to force farm companies into mediation at any time. It did not become law this year, but could come back next year.

Legal issues

Lopez’s attorneys are challenging the suspected timing of the ALRB’s latest action, and claim the new contract is not final because it is being remanded to an arbitrator before a final order can be adopted.

“There is no final contract barring this election from taking place,” said Paul Bauer, an attorney representing Lopez.  “The ALRB should follow the clear policy and legislative intent of the Agriculture Labor Relations Act, which is free choice, and allow the workers the chance to vote.”

The denial of the petition and the approval of a collective bargaining agreements would mean that the farm workers likely cannot hold an election for another two years.

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Silvia Lopez is a quiet, thoughtful 15-year Gerawan Farming employee, and the de facto leader of thousands of Central Valley farm workers who have been protesting for nearly a year to oust the United Farm Workers union from the farming company.

Seven hundred Gerawan farm workers took a day off without pay and descended on Sacramento Wednesday to attend a meeting at the Agricultural Labor Relations Board.  Then they walked to the State Capitol to meet Gov. Jerry Brown.

Six of the farm workers tried to ask Brown to intervene with the ALRB to allow them to vote on whether to keep or oust the UFW from Gerawan Farming.

“Jerry Brown, we want an election at Gerawan Farming,” Lopez said, as she approached the governor’s office.

While waiting in the Capitol hallway outside, one of Brown’s employees poked her head out and asked, “Are you guys with the UFW?”

“No, we are against the UFW,” Lopez said. “We are farm workers with Gerawan Farming. And I am Silvia Lopez.”

But the governor didn’t respond. Instead, to talk with the workers, he sent Martha Guzman-Aceves, the Deputy Legislative Secretary for agriculture, environment and natural resources.

From Guzman-Aceves, Brown's negative message was loud and clear. She is a former Legislative Coordinator for the United Farm Workers, AFL-CIO. She was co-founder of three non-profit organizations under the name, the Communities for a New California. It describes itself as “committed to empowering underrepresented communities in California’s Central Coast, San Joaquin Valley and South East Desert. CNC works to promote economic prosperity, community health, and accessible and accountable government with election and policy campaigns. CNC organizes communities around the issues that matter most to them through localized direct education activities, earned media, and training.”

Meeting

The meeting with Guzman-Aceves lasted 45 minutes, during which Lopez told the story reiterating that the workers don’t want and don’t need the UFW at Gerawan Farming. She told Guzman-Aceves how she personally collected 90 percent of the workers’ signatures, but they were rejected by the ALRB.

The workers recounted the UFW harassment, and showed Guzman-Aceves Lopez’s swollen wrist.

Guzman-Aceves said she would call the ALRB area representative in Visalia. But Lopez said that would do nothing, as ALRB’s Visalia regional director, Silas M. Shawver, is the official who rejected the signatures, and has fought them every step of the way.

“Would you not like me to call him?” Guzman-Aceves asked.

Lopez explained again that they were there seeking intervention from the governor. “There’s no recourse for us. That’s why we are here,” she said. “We just want an election.”

But as Guzman-Aceves stood up to indicate the end of the meeting, Silvia Lopez shook her head and said, “Jerry Brown is not coming.”

UFW response

“The ALRB issued a 12-page report which dismissed the workers' petition,” said UFW communications director, Maria Machuca, when I called her. “It was just a small group, the petition, and included forgeries and company involvement, which is illegal.”

“The ALRB invalidated the Gerawan decertification petition based on illegal employer involvement,” Machuca added in an email following my call. “In its review of the petitions signed by employees, the ALRB found a substantial number of forged signatures.  Nothing demonstrates more disrespect for employees than forging their signatures on a legal document.”

The ALRB decision Machuca referred to was issued Sept. 25. “This Petition is invalid because is has not been accompanied by an adequate showing of interest,” the decision said. “In addition, the Petition is being dismissed because there is no reasonable cause to find the Petition presents a genuine question of representation.”

Ironically, because the workers were not represented by a union, they could not petition to get rid of the union.

Coming to Sacramento

Earler in the day, Lopez led 700 polite workers holding signs that said, “No UFW,” “Our Jobs, Our Choice,” and “Let us Vote.”

Despite the calm crowd, Lopez pointed out UFW infiltrators. Lopez told me she had an encounter with a couple of UFW representatives as the group’s seven buses arrived and parked on 10th Street in front of the Capitol. One of the UFW men grabbed and twisted her wrist and demanded to know who paid for the buses.

Lopez said the UFW men then tried to get the bus drivers to tell them who paid for the buses. Getting nowhere, they called some of the workers — excuse the word, but it's important to quote it directly — “wetbacks,” and threatened to call immigration law enforcement.

Despite the aggression, Lopez welcomed the men to join her should they change their minds about the UFW.

As to the buses, Lopez told me that they were paid for by a generous donor after he heard her interview on the Ray Appleton radio talk show Tuesday. The buses carried the 700 protesters from the Fresno area to Sacramento.

Agricultural Labor Relations Board

The hundreds of farm workers assembled in front of the Sacramento Convention Center on J Street while Lopez and others met with a representative from the ALRB, located across the street. Lopez said they would not let her into the ALRB board meeting in progress, and instead had her communicate through an ALRB employee.

“The UFW is not offering anything,” Lopez said. “The ALRB is the same — they are just up there,” she said, gesturing 20-story building across the street (pictured nearby).

Lopez was only asking for the opportunity to vote on whether the Gerawan employees would allow the UFW to represent them, or not. The ALRB has denied this request, despite the 3,000 signatures Lopez collected for a petition to decertify the union and allow them to continue working as non-union employees.

UFW and ALRB

In order to breathe new life into the moribund union, many in the farming community claim the ALRB and UFW have joined forces to boost the union by targeting one of the biggest non-union farming operations in the state. Should they succeed in unionizing Gerawan Farming employees, adding the 5,000 farmworkers would double union membership, and certainly boost the ALRB’s status.

The UFW is a shadow of what it once was. With approximately only 3,300 union members, the UFW needs money and members to survive. Earlier in the year, I wrote about Senate Bill 25, a bill by Sen. President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, targeting six of the largest non-union farming operations in the state.

Gerawan Farming’s story depicts a state government seeking to encroach on private sector business. Owner Dan Gerawan told me in August, if SB25 was signed into law, he could lose his business and thousands of his workers could lose their jobs.

He said the real motive behind SB25 was to target his 5,000 workers, as well as other large farming companies’ workers, to force them into the UFW in order to immediately double the union’s size. SB25 was not passed this year, but will be taken up next year.

Gerawan Farming

The UFW won an election to represent Gerawan Farming's workers 23 years ago. But after only one bargaining session, the union disappeared and wasn’t heard from for more than 20 years.

Last October, the union reappeared to impose a contract on Gerawan Farming and its employees — without a new vote of the workers.

Every Gerawan worker said the company offers the highest paying employment package in the industry; the workers don’t need or want the union.

Belen Lopez, Silvia’s daughter, said she goes to college and was working as a cashier for $8.00 per hour. But she quit that job and went to work in quality control at Gerawan Farming, starting at $10.00. Belen said Gerawan pays bonuses and allows her a flexibility to meet her school schedule. She and the other workers said Gerawan Farming allows all the time off they need, and allows the workers to decide among themselves who works, as long as the production needs are met.

The right to vote

“Government, we are here of our own free will,” yelled one farm worker as he stood in front of the ALRB building, looking up to the 19th floor. “We are here and we want the right to vote!”

“We don’t want the union — we want the right to vote. We want to be heard!” Silvia Lopez yelled into the microphone.

Lopez said she personally gathered more than 1,100 workers’ signatures in only three days. And it’s not an easy task. Signature gatherers must wait until workers are on break to even approach them, and use the time to explain the petition and get signatures. She eventually gathered more than 2,800 signatures, but the ALRB denied most of them, claiming the signatures were forged, as I wrote in “Farm workers fight UFW unionization.”