The Supreme Court today hands farm workers and the United Farm Workers of America victories in two unanimous related opinions — Gerawan Farming, Inc. v. Agricultural Labor Relations Board and Tri-Fanucchi Farms v. Agricultural Labor Relations Board. Both opinions are written by Justice Goodwin Liu. (Here and here.)
In Gerawan Farming, the court upholds against constitutional attacks a mandatory mediation and conciliation process that the Legislature added in 2002 to the Agricultural Labor Relations Act. Under the process, if the grower employer and the union reach an impasse, a neutral mediator may resolve disputed terms and submit a proposed contract to the Agricultural Labor Relations Board, which can then impose the contract on the parties. The Gerawan Farming opinion also rejects the grower’s assertion of a defense that the union had abandoned its employees and had thus forfeited its representative status. The court concludes, “the Legislature intended to reserve the power to decertify labor organization representatives to employees and labor organizations alone.”
The Tri-Fanucchi Farms opinion relies on Gerawan Farming to reject the grower’s abandonment defense. It also upholds an ALRB order requiring the grower to pay its employees make-whole relief because of its refusal to bargain with the UFW.
In Gerawan Farming, the court reverses the Fifth District Court of Appeal. In Tri-Fanucchi Farms, the court affirms the same court’s rejection of the grower’s abandonment defense, but reverses the appellate court’s rejection of the ALRB’s make-whole relief.
