Ag prepares for labor pains

Inside California agriculture they’re preparing for a new onslaught by organized labor. Instead of one union, several may be involved.

The impetus for unions to take a fresh look at farm workers comes from bill SB-126 passed by the 2011 legislature in Sacramento. Among other clout, it gives the Agricultural Labor Relations Board (ALRB) expanded powers to change the outcome when farm workers vote to choose or reject a union.

It doesn’t surprise farmers that unionization suddenly occupies a more prominent place on their agendas. The original Agricultural Labor Relations Act(ALRA) was signed by Governor Brown during his first term in 1975. His friendship with the leader of the United Farmworkers union was well documented at the time. Some believe the governor carefully directed the writing of SB-126, even took part in it.

The bill allows the ALRB to microscopically judge the behavior of farmers after union representatives tell them that some in their work force want to join a union. Often that announcement is a shocker. Employers can over react.

Instead, they are being advised by experienced legal counsel to cooperate, acquaint themselves with the procedure that can lead to a secret ballot election, communicate openly with their workers and – stay cool.

Losing their cool under the now more powerful microscope of the ALRB can have serious consequences as the matter moves toward an election. Even if the farmer’s employees reject a union the ALRB can impose a union contract as punishment for mistakes he made in the election process.

Farm employers are being told to strengthen the commitment of their management and supervisory personnel. If those leaders imply to workers that a union can be helpful the workers will absorb that like a sponge. On the other hand, steadfast loyalty to the employer will be transmitted to them just as surely.

To many experienced observers the new provisions of the labor act appear to be overkill. The legal community within agriculture agrees. It is almost certain that the constitutionality of the law will be tested, but that action will take time, and money.

What probably will take less time is recognition by unions other than the United Farmworkers that the door to organizing farm workers has just been opened wider. The United Food & Commercial Workers union already has organized workers at a half dozen Central California dairies. But it has not been a smooth road; it has lost more elections than it has won.

Some observers believe the union that started it all in California 45 years ago, the United Farmworkers, is in tatters. It has not achieved a significant union victory in four years or more, partly because it hasn’t tried. It is on the brink of losing a contract that covers 1,400 workers in the Salinas area.

It shouldn’t surprise anybody that workers are increasingly skeptical of union membership. Nationally, union membership among non-governmental employees is less than 7 percent of the workforce.  Any participation in job creation by organized labor is noticeably absent. But union dollars contributed to political campaigns continue to mount.

Farmers believe the current raid on their employee relations skills and their reputation for treating their employees fairly and with respect is basically a political venture. They are used to being battered by politicians, but that doesn’t make the battering any more pleasant.

However, farmers are gaining wider understanding if not sympathy from their city cousins. Food eaters are getting to know food producers better all the time. Consumers will not be patient knowing their food supplies can be cut off by strikes, boycotts – or a state agency with dictatorial powers.

Don Curlee is a agriculture consultant in the Valley. His column appears each Monday is The Recorder.