California workers paid to attend anti-union protest by major agribusiness, UFW says
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- UFW alleges workers were paid to attend anti-union protest at state board office.
- Wonderful Nurseries denies funding protest but faces ALRB complaint over coercive tactics.
- Federal lawsuit challenges constitutionality of California’s card check law.
California’s flagship farmworker union has accused a major agribusiness of paying workers to participate in an anti-union protest last year — the latest twist in a bitter and high-profile unionization campaign at North America’s largest grapevine nursery.
The United Farm Workers published a video on Wednesday alleging more than 100 Wonderful Nurseries, LLC workers who participated in an anti-union protest were paid $100 in cash for joining the protest.
The March 27, 2024 anti-union protest was held in Visalia at the offices of the the California Agricultural Relations Board, which oversees farmworker union campaigns, shortly after the company was certified to represent hundreds of workers at its Kern County facilities.
”[It] really shows how manipulated these workers are, how vulnerable they are to coercion, and how much power this company has over their over their futures,” Elizabeth Strater, national vice president and director of strategic litigation for the union, said in an interview.
In the one-minute, 33-second edited video, nursery worker Maria Ester Gutierrez, who led the protest, says she was told by an unnamed third party to feed the protesters and pay each one $100 dollars. Another woman on the camera asks about an additional $50 payment.
“He gives us his word and I know that he will. He delivers,” she said of an unnamed benefactor. She tells workers they need to sign their names on a sheet to receive funds for gas.
Gutierrez is seen holding a stack of cash, handing bills to workers out of her car trunk.
Attempts to reach Gutierrez were unsuccessful.
The company said in a statement to The Bee it “had nothing to do with any of those protests whatsoever, in any way.”
“The UFW’s bizarre efforts continued today with weak public gatherings and misleading social media posts intended to distract from the nearly 150 farmworkers who publicly stated they felt lied to by the union, and from the fact the union is losing in the courts, where a state judge has already said the “Card Check” law they abused is likely unconstitutional,” the company said. (
Patrick Semmens, vice president of the National Right to Work Foundation said in a statement that “the UFW’s release of this video shows their goal is not to stand up for Wonderful Nurseries workers, but to demonize and attack any employee that dissents – including through illicit surveillance and blatant misrepresentation.”
The conservative, anti-union nonprofit legal aid group is representing Gutierrez and other workers in a federal lawsuit.
The UFW declined to share how they obtained the video or who filmed it.
Wonderful, UFW trade allegations
The UFW was certified on March 4, 2024 by the ALRB as the organizing union for 640 workers at Wonderful Nurseries. The UFW submitted 327 valid authorization cards to establish majority support.
The certification was swiftly contested by Wonderful and 148 workers, who alleged the union tricked workers into voting for the union in exchange for help securing $600 COVID-19 federal relief payments. The union denied these allegations as “categorically false.”
In May 2024, the company sued the ALRB, arguing that a 2022 state law allowing farmworkers to vote in union elections via card check was “unconstitutional.”
In December, the company filed a separate lawsuit in the federal Eastern District Court of California.
Gutierrez is one of the workers who wants her name removed from the list of workers who voted in favor of certifying the election. She’s also a plaintiff in the federal lawsuit filed by the Wonderful Company.
In May, a federal judge granted a motion allowing 20 workers including Gutierrez to intervene in the federal lawsuit against the state.
As to why the union waited more than a year after the protest to share the video, Strater said the UFW chose to publish now that the witness portion of the hearing process has concluded in the pending state board case. The company has contested the union election results.
“The UFW has been very committed to letting the process play out,” Strater said. “There is a place to bring not just allegations, but evidence and establishment of facts when it comes to the charges that we brought forward. But the place for that was in front of the judge, not in front of the media.”
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Farmworkers were paid to attend anti-union protest
According to a court transcript from an April 15 hearing in front of an administrative ALRB judge, Gutierrez, who organized the protest, confirmed she provided $50 and $100 to cover gas and food costs for protesters who otherwise “didn’t want to attend.”
“To tell you the truth, people don’t want to attend these things without any pay,” she said in Spanish through a court interpreter.
Gutierrez said she gave some cash to workers in the parking lot of Wonderful Nurseries before heading out to the protest. She later said she also gave cash to workers at a Jack in the Box in Delano, where she was filmed.
She repeatedly denied that Wonderful or Raul Calvo, a labor relations consultant hired by Wonderful Nurseries, helped her pay protesters. She said she obtained a $6,000 loan to provide the cash through personal contacts.
Still, the UFW’s video said the exchange is an example of “dirty money” influencing the “protesters.” The video calls on Wonderful to respect farmworkers and to “stop pending money fighting the UFW.”
Wonderful has engaged in anti-union tactics during this unionization campaign. In April 2024, the ALRB filed a complaint against Wonderful Nurseries, saying that it “coerced” workers to attend a mandatory “captive audience” meeting to urge employees to reject UFW representation.
Last summer, the company had billboards around its orchards in Kern and King counties warning workers to not trust the labor union.
This story was originally published July 31, 2025 at 12:25 PM with the headline "California workers paid to attend anti-union protest by major agribusiness, UFW says."
