Lawsuit by California Ag growers threatens ‘farmworkers’ basic labor rights,’ ALRB says
The California labor board on Friday filed a court brief in support of protections for the state’s farmworkers as part of a legal battle the board says has aimed to do away with a regulation that provides workers information about their rights.
The California Agricultural Labor Relations Board filed its brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in anticipation of a hearing in March on a case brought on by two agricultural employers.
The employers, Cedar Point Nursery and Fowler Packing Company, Inc., claim a 45-year-old access regulation “takes their property without just compensation in violation of the Fifth Amendment by allowing union organizers to enter their property without their consent,” according to the ALRB.
However, the ALRB, in its court brief, disputes a “mischaracterization of the regulation” by the two agricultural employers, which the board says threatens “farmworkers’ basic labor rights,” as well as policies that protect public health, food safety, and the welfare of children.
Joshua P. Thompson, one of the attorneys representing the agricultural growers, said petitioners believe and maintain the access regulation “takes an easement across their property without compensation in violation of the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.”
“We look forward to the opportunity to present our case to the Supreme Court,” he said in an email to The Bee.
The ALRB says the long-standing regulation is a landmark for its board, providing one of the most robust labor rights law for farmworkers across the country. The ALRB says the regulation allows union representatives brief access to agricultural sites during “nonwork hours to meet with workers and inform them of their workplace rights, including the right to organize.”
“At its core, this lawsuit is an attempt to disenfranchise farmworkers and deprive them of basic information about their right to organize and chill any attempt by farmworkers to exercise that basic labor right,” Victoria Hassid, chair of the ALRB, said in a news release. “The Board is committed to ensuring that all farmworkers in California have the tools necessary to exercise their labor rights.”
The U.S. Eastern District Court dismissed the claims by the two agricultural employers. That ruling was later reaffirmed by a divided panel at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, according to the ALRB.
The Ninth Circuit then denied a petition to rehear the case.
The two agricultural employers then filed a request for U.S. Supreme Court to review the lower court’s decision. On March 22, the country’s highest court is expected to hear oral arguments on the case, according to the ALRB.
This is not the first attempt to do away with the regulation. The California Supreme Court rejected a similar claim to “invalidate” the regulation in 1975, soon after it was adopted, according to the ALRB.
The American Farm Bureau Federation last month filed a brief in support of the petitioners, according to court records. The federation says according to most recent data, there are about 1.35 million farmworkers in the country, many of whom work for AFBF members.
“Farm Bureau’s members have a strong interest in protecting their right to exclude trespassers from their lands and to thereby establish a safe and undisturbed work environment for themselves and their employees,” according to the federation’s court brief.
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