Farmworkers file federal challenge against California card check unionization law
Central Valley agricultural workers are challenging a 2023 California “card check” law that they said allowed the United Farm Workers union to establish representation without employees’ vote.
Farmworkers for Wonderful Nurseries in Wasco are challenging the mandatory mediation under the California’s Agricultural Labor Relations Act (ALRA), a process where a neutral third-party mediator assists unions and employers in reaching a collective bargaining agreement when negotiations fail to produce one.
The ALRA requires mediation if certain conditions are met. If mediation is unsuccessful, the mediator can impose a collective bargaining agreement on the parties.
The Wonderful Nurseries farmworkers say that the ALRA forces employees and employers to accept government-mandated union contracts.
The Wonderful Nurseries farmworkers, who received free legal aid from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation staff attorneys, filed the federal complaint challenging portions of the ALRA in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, Fresno Division on May 19.
The district court on May 14 granted Claudia Chavez, Maria Gutierrez, and 18 others Wonderful Nurseries employees to participate in a lawsuit against the Agricultural Labor Relations Board and the UFW.
“When the law works, farm workers can win better wages and working conditions for themselves. No wonder bad employers want to eliminate the laws protecting workers’ rights,” said Antonio De Loera, UFW communications director. “Everyone in farm worker communities can see the inequality, the injustice, and the poverty wages. Unionization remains the best tool a farm worker has to raise wages, improve benefits, and lift their families out of generational poverty.”
Santiago Avila-Gomez, executive secretary with the ALRB, said the board does not comment on pending litigation.
California’s “card check law” aims to make it easier for farmworkers to vote in union elections in a state court case.
According to the farmworkers’ complaint, the card check process lacks the security of a secret ballot vote and exposes workers to intimidation and manipulation from union officials who collected cards to claim majority support among workers.
“Workers everywhere in the country should have the right to vote in a secure secret ballot election on whether they want a union,” Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Foundation, said in a statement. “They should have a right to refrain from union activity and challenge union boss misdeeds if a union they oppose does gain control over them. Card check is a process designed to trample workers’ individual rights.”
Under the rules of California’s Agricultural Labor Relations Board, a union that presents the agency with cards from the majority of workers gains certification as the workers’ bargaining agent.
The UFW was certified on March 4, 2024, by the ALRB, as the organizing union for 640 workers at Wonderful Nurseries — North America’s largest grapevine nursery. The UFW submitted 327 valid authorization cards to establish majority support.
Wonderful, a multi-billion dollar business owned by entrepreneurs, philanthropists and marketing gurus Stewart and Lynda Resnick, promptly filed a motion with the ALRB contesting the election results and requesting an immediate stay of certification. UFW and Wonderful filed charges against each other with the ALRB.
The UFW claimed that Wonderful Nurseries coerced workers into making false statements. Wonderful alleged UFW organizers misled almost half of the farmworkers who signed the union authorization cards.
This story was originally published June 6, 2025 at 11:47 AM.
