Judge Mark Sobel on Payroll of Labor Board

This week, a hearing began in Fresno, California regarding a labor dispute between farmworkers at Gerawan Farming, Inc. and the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board (ALRB).

The workers voted in a decertification election last November to kick the United Farm Workers (UFW) out, but the ALRB refuses to count their votes. This is a clear violation of the farmworkers’ civil liberties.

To the farmworkers’ disadvantage, according to Transparent California, the presiding judge of the hearing, Mark Sobel, received $142,295 from the California ALRB last year.

Gerawan farmworkers have no choice but to trust their freedom to this supposedly impartial judge. But how can this judge be impartial when he is on the payroll of one of the parties in the dispute? Sobel has been on the payroll of the ALRB since at least 2011.

Source: Transparent California