A Field Investigator at California Agricultural Labor Relations Board Reveals Corruption, Lies, and Bullying

By Samantha Zinnen

On May 12^th, 2015, a confidential call was placed by someone inside the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board (ALRB) to its Chairman, William B. Gould IV. That caller was a field investigator working at the board’s Visalia Regional Office as a member of the General Counsel’s staff.

During the call, the anonymous whistleblower called out their boss, regional director Silas Shawver, and his boss, Sylvia Torres-Guillén, the board’s general counsel.

The whistleblowing ALRB employee alleges that board staff falsified testimony and sworn statements in order to manipulate the board into approving a continued fight with Gerawan Farming, Inc. and its workers. 

Gerawan and its workers have been figting the ALRB and the United Farm Workers (UFW) for over two years. The UFW originally was certified at the farm in 1992 and then disappeared for well over two decades. Then, a few years ago, the labor union showed back up at the farm demanding that workers give the union 3 percent of their wages or be fired. This shocking reappearance by the desperate union was not welcomed by the workers. To the contrary, the workers, led by their own Silvia Lopez, are fighting the UFW tooth and nail to decertify the union.

In 2013, the workers voted in a decertification election. The ALRB, including Silas Shawver and Torres-Guillén, refused to count the votes. This is what, in part, triggered the ongoing legal battles, which have been decided five times by different courts in favor of Gerawan and its workers so far.

Two of the more recent losses have occurred in the past two months, in May and June. The first was the decision by an appellate court that declared the California’s Mandatory Mediation and Conciliation Statue (MMC) unconstitutional, which nullified the ALRB’s command to Gerawan workers to unionize. The second decision was by a state superior court that refused to uphold the ALRB demand that Gerawan reinstate a fired farmworker. The judge in that ruling was very clear, according to Katy Grimes in her June 18^thFlashreport article:

In his ruling, Judge Donald S. Black cited the ALRB for “deficiencies” in the investigation of the firing, “apparent embroilment of the ALRB’s staff in the investigation,” and – most concerning–the ALRB staff’s “involvement in the termination of Mr. Marquez” that triggered a false emergency to justify the Board OK’ing the petition to the court for an injunction.

Part of the evidence used by the judge in his decision was the information first brought to light by the whistleblower. The allegations in conjunction with this latest loss most likely facilitated her removal from her post and reassignment to work as Special Counsel to the Governor’s office. This was Torres-Guillén’s fifth loss in two years in the ongoing Gerawan battle. Torres-Guillén’s leadership decisions have been questioned before this as she had used 40 percent of the state board’s entire budget to fund her battle against Gerawan and its workers.

The identity of this whistleblower is protected by California’s Whistleblower Protection Act (2013). This act, newly enacted by the state legislature, grants strong protections to the whistleblower in order to prevent retaliation by the persons or agency they are reporting.

Silas Shawver is a lawyer who works as the regional director at the Visalia office, and has been embroiled in scandal in the past due to his UFW ties.According to Grimes, in the same June 18^th Flashreport article, Shawver is currently:

…a defendant in a federal civil rights action which alleges that he orchestrated an election-day photo ID check on hundreds of Latino immigrant farmworkers while waiting in line to cast ballots. Shawver did this at the urging of the UFW, who didn’t want an election to occur at all. Shawver was the subject of dozens of sworn complaints that he sought to manipulate the Gerawan workers’ vote that year to decertify the UFW. He won a rebuke from another California court who told Shawver that the ALRB appeared to be “in cahoots” with the union. This latest sortie in state court didn’t alter that perception.

With this many UFW connections, it is unsurprising that allegations of pro-union, anti-worker agendas at the ALRB are connected with Shawver. Shawver was embroiled in yet another scandal when a photograph of himself wearing a UFW shirt came to light. Shawver wearing a union t-shirt be just be a tad too inappropriate for someone who is supposed to be impartial.

Sylvia Torres-Guillén, since her appointment as General Counsel to the ALRB by Governor Jerry Brown in 2011, has also been tainted by scandals of her own making. Grimes also reports of Torres-Guillén that:

She is a named defendant in a retaliation lawsuit filed by another attorney in her office, who accuses her of demoting experienced Board attorneys with inexperienced lawyers whose primary qualification appears to be a willingness to take unquestioned direction from Ms. Torres-Guillén.

After nine months of lengthy, unfair labor practice hearings, ALRB Administrative Law Judge Mark Soble’s decision on allowing the Gerawan workers’ votes to be counted is expected any day now. If Judge Soble comes down on the side of the ALRB he would add to the state agency’s already tainted image.

Or, he could do the right thing and allow workers’ voices to be heard.

Photo credit to Steven Depolo.