ELECTION SHOWS UFW'S STATE OF DECLINE

Convincing evidence that the United Farmworkers union is in a persistent state of decline was displayed April 24 when the union was decertified overwhelmingly at Excelsior Farms(Warmerdam Packing) in Hanford. The vote was 239 to 59, but the unit consists of 669 members. That reduced union membership by more than 10 percent to slightly more than 4,000.

An unfair labor practice charge filed immediately by the union was almost as quickly dismissed as superficial by the Agricultural Labor Relations Board, leading to certification of the result within a week.

Dues Reduce Wages: A major source of contention among workers was the deduction of two percent of their wages for union dues. For many it reduced the take-home portion of $7.50-per-hour workers to less than minimum wage.

Excelsior was in the final year of its three-year contract with the UFW, scheduled to expire in December. It was only the firm's second successive contract period, although access and organization notices had been served on the company as long as 15 years ago, and perennially renewed. The union finally attracted enough followers to win its first election there in 2001. Holding onto the contract has proven more difficult than gaining it in the first place.

A broad-based communication and employee relations program by Excelsior is credited with the employer gaining the trust of employees to the extent they felt no further need for union representation.

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CARD CHECK BILL SLAMMED BY STATE AGENCY

Testimony last month at a Senate committee hearing on SB 180, the card check proposal, included stinging opposition from the Labor and Workforce Development Agency. Spokesman Steffanie Watkins said the procedure significantly weakens the current electoral protections of the ALRA.

"This proposed change fundamentally undermines an employee's right to a secret ballot election that currently allows them(him or her) the opportunity to cast a ballot privately without fear of coercion or manipulation by any interested parties," she said.

The implication, as labor attorneys have pointed out repeatedly, is that card check signatures are subject to signing when union representatives look over the employees' shoulders or offer even more persuasive encouragement during evening visits to their homes.

A Law Full of Flaws: In addition to the basic flaw of inviting strong-arm coercion, Watkins said the measure creates unrealistic and unmanageable time frames for both employers and the ALRB. Specifically, she referred to the requirement that an employer provide a list of all employees within 24 hours after he has received the card check signup, half the time allowed now under the ALRA.

She said the 48 hours given employers to evaluate the representation cards will be closer to 24 hours in most cases, an unnecessarily short period.

Further, she criticized the measure's requirement that bargaining begin immediately after 51 percent of the employee signatures are presented to the employer, even if objections to the signatures or the process are filed.

Watkins said the bill also establishes an excessive and unnecessary penalty structure for certain unfair labor practices.

At the same hearing the president of the United Farmworkers claimed that some workers feel intimidated in the secret ballot voting process because they cast their ballots in booths located on employer property, or they are taken to the voting site by bus or transportation provided by the employer.

Of course, in large elections polling places are often set up at public parks or other areas that have no connection with the employer. To reinforce his claims, the heir to the UFW throne recruited 50 or more "workers" as a cheering section.

The bill that proposed the corruption-susceptible card check system was submitted by Carole Migden, a Democrat senator from San Francisco. One of its co-authors is Fresno's Juan Arambula, also a Democrat who was roughed up earlier in his first term as assemblyman by the legislative banditos from Southern California.

The irony of the arguments by the UFW president and the unon's lackeys is that achievement of the secret ballot election process is one of the few - perhaps the only - major accomplishment of the union's 48-year history. Opposing that process in favor of the seriously-flawed card check system is the height of hypocrisy.

The union's inconsistency and its abandonment of its most strategic and worthwhile accomplishment must confound and confuse its followers. If the union's friends in the legislature are not confused enough to divorce themselves from such political tap dancing, many of their constituents will be.

The Agricultural Labor Relations Board is not expected to take a position on the card check issue. However, members must feel betrayed as the board's 30-year effort to refine a revered and exemplary voting method is jeopardized by the backdoor effort to establish a tawdry, one-sided substitute for true justice.

If the card check bill passes the Senate and Assembly a veto by Governor

Schwarzenegger is expected but not guaranteed. However, if a Democrat governor is elected two years from now, and a copy of the current bill is sent to him, it is almost sure to be signed. One analyst predicts that its passage will assure an astronomical and almost immediate increase in the number of members of the UFW from the current 4,000 to 250,000 or more. That is a sobering thought.

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CARD CHECK PROPOSED IN FEDERAL LEGISLATION

A card check amendment to the National Labor Relations Act was proposed in Congress about two months ago, with California's George Miller its principal author. Both of California's Democrat Senators have signed on as co-authors. It sailed through the House, and has gone to the Senate, where Senator Kennedy is its chief sponsor.

The bill is expected to pass the Senate, after which it will be sent to President Bush. He has indicated he will veto such legislation which rips the underpinnings from the secret ballot election process established in the federal law, a backbone of its protection of labor-management stability for more than 60 years.

The double-barreled approach for legislation at the national and state levels is an obvious survival attempt by organized labor, which has watched its membership in the private sector drop to less than 10 percent of the workforce. For unions, apparently destruction of such time-honored legislation is not too high a price to pay for an anticipated membership surge. For employers it can be disaster.

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WAGE AND HOUR DECISION INDICATES OMINOUS FUTURE

The recent decision by the California Supreme Court in regard to payment for meal and rest periods foretells difficult days ahead for employers in all industries, but agriculture is especially susceptible. Basic to the ruling is the determination that such payment is a wage, not a bonus.

As wages, claims by employees of shortages or oversights in payment are open to dispute for four years. The statue of limitations on payments judged to be bonuses is for only one year.

The ruling means that employees can sue under the Unfair Competition Law, triggering liability by employers under Labor Code Section 203. That section requires that a terminated or resigned employee must receive payments of this type within 72 hours of his employment ending.

If such payment is not made - or has not been made - the employer is obligated to pay the former employee the equivalent of 30 days of such wages. After a short time a penalty kicks in, which increases the amount owed to astronomical levels, especially if several former employees are involved.

While failure to pay these obligations occurred in almost every instance as oversights or misunderstanding of the applicable wage orders, or outright refusal of the payment by employees at the time, payment is still due and penalties apply.

Application of these wage and hour provisions are expected to enter prominently into the Doe case and other class action claims now being refined by attorneys representing a host of workers. Several agricultural employers are expected to be named as defendants.

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DAIRY ACTIVITY BY UNION COOLS

The flush of union organizational activity at as many as a dozen dairy and cattle operations in Tulare County has subsided without an election. All notices of intent to take access or to organize have expired.

However, as AG ACCENT was being printed the counting of challenged ballots at the Artesia Dairy in Visalia was expected, with a union victory a distinct possibility. The Artesia election was held in March, 2006, after an organizational effort conducted by the UFW. If the election goes to the union it will be the UFW's first dairy win.

The NAs and NOs that have expired after being filed earlier this year were triggered by the United Food and Commercial Workers of San Jose, which holds a few contracts with dairy operators from previous organizational efforts.

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APMA CONDUCTS VARIETY OF WORKSHOPS

The Agricultural Personnel Management Association has scheduled six workshops in various locations in June dealing with the prevention of sexual harassment, CPR and first aid training and heat illness prevention. Supervisors, foremen and human resources personnel are being encouraged to attend.

The dates of the meetings are June 5, 6, 11, 13, 14 and 19 in Santa Maria, Salinas and Fresno. For more specific information on dates, times and locations APMA can be contacted in Salinas at 831-422-8023. A flyer for each meeting is available to those who call.

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