CWF's Execuitve Director Matt Patterson, writes for the Organe Country Register today about United Farm Workers attempt to force a contract on workers at Gerawan Farming located in Fresno, California.

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Matt Patterson: Democracy denied for Fresno farm workers

By MATT PATTERSON / Contributing Writer

Published: July 16, 2014 Updated: 5:00 p.m.

Silvia Lopez has worked the orchards of California’s Central Valley for more than 15 years. She is a single mother.

Ms. Lopez works for Gerawan Farming, Inc., a producer of apricots, peaches and other tree fruits, where she has earned above-average wages for her industry. And the United Farm Workers wants a cut, 3 percent of her pay, to be exact.

The problem: While the union did win a representation election at Gerawan in 1990, after one bargaining session with the company the union vanished before any contract was agreed to.

For almost two decades the union was absent. Meanwhile, the workforce that had voted in the original election was replaced by new workers, including Silvia Lopez. The union never collected dues and did not obtain for them the high wages and favorable working conditions Silvia enjoyed.

In fact, the union did nothing at all for Silvia or her family. But in 2012 the union returned, demanding her money.

Silvia was incensed. In short order she collected 2,000 signatures from her co-workers to petition the California Agriculture Labor Relations Board for a decertification election. The board refused. So Silvia went back and got even more signatures, 3,000 this time, well more than a majority of Gerawan employees.

At last the board relented, and an election took place last November.

One can reasonably assume that workers who signed a petition for decertification want, like Silvia, the union to stay out of their fields – and their pockets.

Alas we must assume, because the results of November’s voting remain undisclosed. The ballots sit in a safe in the ALRB offices, uncounted. The board cites vague irregularities in the election that must be investigated before the results can be disclosed. In the meantime, it wants to compel Gerawan into mandatory bargaining and force the workers into the “3 percent” contract.

Conveniently for the union, the board also claims it has run out of money to “investigate” the election, and no time frame has been given for the resolution of the issue.

Does anyone doubt for a moment that if the union had won that election, we would have known the results months ago? The board and the UFW need each other; if there was no union to file unfair labor practice charges, there would be nothing for the board to do. (Even California Superior Court Judge Jeff Hamilton noted that the board appears in “cahoots” with the union.)

And the union needs the board to help it force workers like Silvia onto their rolls, because they can’t compete in a free and fair labor market. Agriculture workers have been fleeing the UFW in droves – from its height of some 50,000 members in the 1970s the union has dwindled to a mere 5,000 dues-paying members today.

For Ms. Lopez, it’s a matter of justice. The First Amendment of the United States Constitution gives her the right to associate with whom she wishes. She has jumped through all the legal hoops the board asked her to, at great personal risk and expense, to see to it that her wishes were known. And still the board thwarts her freedoms of speech and assembly.

Gov. Jerry Brown ought to be ashamed of the agency he created in 1975. Everyone in California who cares for the rights of workers should call the governor’s office at (916) 445-2841 and ask him why he’s not doing anything about it.

It’s simple, really. This is America. An election has been held.

Count the votes.

Matt Patterson is executive director, Center for Worker Freedom, at Americans for Tax Reform.