Judge grants temporary halt in UFW’s unionization of Wonderful Co. nursery workers

After more than a month of deliberation, a Kern County Superior Court judge has sided with Wonderful Co. and issued a preliminary injunction that will temporarily halt a contentious bargaining process between the agricultural giant and the state’s largest farmworker union.

In a ruling issued Thursday, Judge Bernard C. Barmann said Wonderful Co. “was likely to prevail” in its legal challenge to the state’s relatively new system for organizing farmworkers and faces irreparable harm if United Farm Workers is allowed to pursue a bargaining agreement on behalf of Wonderful’s nursery workers before the case is decided.

“The court finds that the public interest weighs in favor of preliminary injunctive relief given the constitutional rights at stake in this matter,” Barmann wrote in the 21-page decision. Wonderful “has met its burden that a preliminary injunction should issue until the matter may be heard fully on the merits.”

Wonderful, a $6-billion agricultural powerhouse owned by Stewart and Lynda Resnick, sued the state Agricultural Labor Relations Board in May, challenging the constitutionality of the state’s so-called card-check system, which Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law in 2022.

Under the law, a union can organize farmworkers by inviting them to sign authorization cards at off-site meetings without notifying their employer. Under the old rules, farmworkers voted on union representation by secret ballot at a polling site designated by the state labor board, typically on employer property.

Union organizers had pressed for the revised card-check law, contending the secret ballot process — typically held at job sites — left workers fearful of retaliation from employers.

But Wonderful, whose portfolio includes such brands as FIJI Water and POM Wonderful, alleges in its lawsuit that the law deprives employers of due process on multiple fronts, including by forcing a company to enter a collective bargaining agreement even if it has formally appealed ALRB certification of a union vote and presented what it believes is evidence that the voting process was fraudulent.

The preliminary injunction marks the latest twist in a tumultuous dispute over the UFW’s unionization campaign at Wonderful Nurseries, the nation’s largest grapevine nursery, located in Wasco.

In late February, the UFW filed a petition with the labor board asserting that a majority of the 600-plus farmworkers at the nursery had signed union authorization cards, and asking to be certified as the workers’ union representative.

Within days, Wonderful accused the UFW of having baited the employees into signing the authorization cards under the guise of helping them apply for $600 each in federal relief for farmworkers who labored during the pandemic. The company submitted nearly 150 signed declarations from nursery workers saying they had not understood that by signing the cards they were voting to unionize.

The UFW countered that Wonderful had intimidated those workers into making false statements and had brought in a labor consultant with a reputation as a union buster to manipulate their emotions in the weeks after they signed the cards.

California

California’s wealthiest farm family — and scores of their workers — accuse UFW of bait and trick

The outcome of the fight between Wonderful Co.’s wealthy owners and California’s storied farmworker union will shape the future of a divisive new process for unionizing agricultural job sites.

April 5, 2024

The ALRB acknowledged receiving the worker declarations from Wonderful; nonetheless, the board’s regional director moved forward three days later to certify the union’s petition. She has said in subsequent hearings that she felt she had to move quickly under the timeline in the card-check law, and that she did not think at the time that the statute authorized her to investigate allegations of misconduct.

Wonderful Co. appealed the ALRB’s certification.

Under the card-check law’s provisions, the UFW’s efforts to bargain with the company on behalf of its nursery workers moved forward, even as Wonderful’s appeal of the certification was working its way through the ALRB’s administrative hearing process. The labor board ruled last week that Wonderful must enter mandatory mediation with the union to establish a collective bargaining agreement.

In its lawsuit, Wonderful challenges the constitutionality of the card-check system on multiple fronts. The suit alleges that the employer’s due process rights were violated when the labor board moved to certify the UFW’s petition before investigating company allegations that the vote was fraudulent; and more broadly that the card-check system lacks adequate safeguards to ensure a legitimate vote.

The company asked that, while its lawsuit moves forward, the judge halt both the unionization effort at its nursery and the ALRB’s administrative hearing process on Wonderful’s appeal.

In a statement released Thursday evening, Rob Yraceburu, president of Wonderful Nurseries, said the company was “gratified” by the court’s decision to pause the certification process until the constitutionality of the card-check law can be “fully and properly considered.”

“In addition,” Yraceburu said, “farmworkers had been wrongly barred from objecting to a union being forced on them, and this ruling states that Wonderful indeed has the standing to fight to ensure those constitutional rights of farmworkers, including their due process and First Amendment rights, are not violated.”

Countering that the ruling “ignores 89 years of labor law precedent,” UFW spokesperson Elizabeth Strater indicated the decision to grant the preliminary injunction would be appealed.

“There is already a process to address wrongdoing in elections and Wonderful was in the middle of that process. Why does Wonderful want to halt that process and silence workers so their voices are not heard?” Strater said. “It’s very clear Wonderful is determined to use its considerable resources to deny farmworkers their rights.”

In a May 30 filing, the state had urged the court to deny Wonderful’s request for an injunction. California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta, arguing on behalf of the ALRB, said Wonderful had failed to demonstrate that the card-check law was causing “irreparable harm or any likelihood of deprivation of its rights.” Bonta also argued that the Superior Court lacked jurisdiction in the case.

Santiago Avila-Gomez, executive secretary with the ALRB, said Thursday evening that the agency was “reviewing the ruling carefully” and wouldn’t have further comment.

The UFW, meanwhile, is pursuing its own legal action against Wonderful. The union has filed a complaint of unfair labor practices with the ALRB, accusing the company of coercing workers into attending “captive audience” meetings urging them to reject UFW representation.

In April, ALRB General Counsel Julia Montgomery issued a complaint, similar to an indictment, alleging Wonderful had committed unfair labor practices by unlawfully helping workers draft declarations to revoke their authorization cards.

The company has largely denied the allegations.

This article is part of The Times’ equity reporting initiative, funded by the James Irvine Foundation to explore challenges facing low-income workers and efforts to address California’s economic divide.