Agricultural Labor Relations Act (ALRA)

In 1975, the California State Legislature passed the Agricultural Labor Relations Act. The purpose of the Act is to ensure peace in the agricultural fields by guaranteeing justice for all agricultural workers and stability in labor relations." The Act states that it is the policy of the State of California to encourage and protect the right of farm workers to act together to help themselves, to engage in union organizational activity and to select their own representatives for the purpose of bargaining with their employer for a contract covering their wages, hours, and working conditions.

The law prohibits the employers from interfering with these rights, protects the rights of workers to be free from restraint or coercion by unions or employers, and it prohibits unions from engaging in certain types of strikes and picketing.

Agricultural Labor Relations Board (ALRB)

The Agricultural Labor Relations Board is the agency that administers the ALRA and protects the rights of agricultural employees in various ways. For example, the ALRA creates a method by which workers may select a union or other representative to bargain with their employer if they wish. Agents of the Board conduct secret-ballot elections to determine whether workers wish to be represented and if so, by whom. Also, the ALRA gives authority to the ALRB to investigate, process and take to trial employers or unions who engage in actions that the Act describes as "unfair labor practices" (ULPs). When Board employees conduct an investigation and obtain enough evidence to show that an unfair labor practice has been committed, a "complaint" is issued and a hearing is held at which each party has a right to present its side of the case.

The ALRA guarantees the rights of employees to engage in, or to refrain from, union activities or "concerted activities," such as acting together to help or protect each other in matters related to their employment, including their wages, hours or working conditions. Actions by an employer or a labor organization that prevent employees from exercising their free choice in a Board election may result in setting aside the election and conducting a new election. Such actions may also be unfair labor practices.

Coverage under the ALRA

The Agricultural Labor Relations Act applies only to agricultural employers, agricultural employees and labor organizations that represent agricultural employees. Those who are not engaged in agriculture and are not agricultural employers are not touched by the ALRA.

Definitions

Agricultural Employer: The term "agricultural employer" includes any person, association or group engaged in agriculture, and any person acting directly or indirectly in the interests of such an employer, or of any grower, cooperative grower, harvesting association, hiring association or land management group.

Farm Labor Contractor: An agricultural employer is responsible for the acts of its supervisors or other persons with supervisory authority over employees. When a farm labor contractor is engaged by an agricultural employer, the employer is responsible for the acts of the labor contractor, its foreman, other supervisors and any other agents acting on his/her behalf.

Supervisor: A supervisor is defined in the ALRA as . . . "any individual having the authority, in the interest of the employer, to hire, transfer, suspend, lay off, recall, promote, discharge, assign, reward or discipline other employees, or the responsibility to direct them or to adjust their grievances or effectively to recommend such actions." In most circumstances, supervisors are not entitled to the rights and protections set forth in the ALRA.

Agricultural Employees: Agricultural employees, as defined in the ALRA, are those engaged in agriculture or in functions that a farmer performs as an incident to or in connection with farming operations. For example, an office clerical employee or a bookkeeper is an agricultural employee if he or she keeps records or books that are incidental to a farming operation.

Union: The ALRA defines a union or labor organization as any organization or group in which employees participate and having a purpose of dealing with employers about grievances, labor disputes, wages, hours, and working conditions of agricultural employees. Although labor organizations are responsible for the acts of their agents and employees, an agricultural employee does not become an agent of a labor organization merely by joining or supporting the union.

Here are some terms used in the ALRA and in this Guide, along with definitions and some explanatory comments.

Concerted Activities: Conduct by two or more employees, acting together, for mutual aid and protection. The ALRA protects such activities even if they do not involve union membership or activity.

Unfair Labor Practice: Any action by an employer or a labor organization that has the effect of restraining or coercing employees in the exercise of their rights guaranteed by the ALRA. An unfair labor practice can be committed by anyone who the law considers an agent of a union or employer.

Union Elections

Labor Code section 1152 gives farm workers these rights: to unite and campaign for a union; to elect a representative by secret ballot to speak for all employees with management about wages, hours and working conditions; to have their representative recognized by management as the bargaining agent and be dealt with in good faith; to act together without interference or discrimination to solve the problems faced by farm workers; and to refrain from any or all of these activities. The secret-ballot election is the first step in this guarantee and protection for the exercise of workers' rights. By casting individual votes in a secret-ballot election, farm workers choose whether they wish to be represented by a labor organization in bargaining with their employer.

Union Access

To make an intelligent choice, employees must have access to information and the opportunity to hear both sides in an election campaign. The ALRB's access regulation is meant to ensure that farm workers, who often may be contacted only at their work place, have an opportunity to be informed with minimal interruption of working activities. The ALRB regulates and enforces these rights by setting certain hours and times when representatives of labor organizations may be present on the employer's property: one hour before and after work, and one hour during the lunch break. The ALRB has limited the number of organizers to two for each crew of 30 or fewer, three for each crew of 3I to 45, four for each crew of 46 to 60, and so on. A labor organization may take access for only four 30-day periods in a single year.

A labor organization wanting to take access must complete a form, called a Notice of Intent to Take Access, and delivers a copy of it to the employer's office or to its manager or one of the supervisors. The union then files the notice at the nearest ALRB office. Once the notice is filed, the employees have a right to meet with, talk to, and receive literature from union organizers at their work site during the hours already mentioned.

Unfair Labor Practices

The purpose of establishing an Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) procedure is to prevent employers and unions from interfering with, restraining or coercing farm workers in the exercise of their rights as granted by the ALRA.

Under the ALRA, it is the exclusive right of employees to decide whether they wish to be represented by a union. In an effort to ensure an atmosphere free from threats, coercion and intimidation, the law specifically declares certain acts by an employer to be unfair labor practices. An employer is responsible for the unfair labor practices committed by any person acting directly or indirectly in the interests of the employer, including supervisors, agents, and farm labor contractors engaged by the employer.

Labor Code section 1153(a) provides that it is an unfair labor practice for an employer to interfere with, restrain or coerce agricultural employees in the exercise of their protected rights. Any attempt by the employer to tamper with, control or dominate the free choice of employees as to whether or not of they wish to organize or be represented by a labor organization is a violation of the ALRA and therefore an unfair labor practice. Speeches, leaflets, booklets, or other communications that threaten employees with physical abuse, lay-offs, reduced wages, loss of wages, loss of work, job transfers and the like violate the ALRA because they are threats of force or reprisal.

During an election campaign, granting benefits or promising to raise wages, improve working conditions, make promotions or provide health insurance or other benefits violate the ALRA because they may imply a threat that such benefits would be taken away if a representative is elected, or because they make voting for a representative seem irrelevant or unnecessary.

Here are some examples of employer interference, restraint and coercion. The employer, his or her agents, foremen, supervisors and farm labor contractors may not:

• threaten to fire employees if they organize, vote for, or join a union, or if they engage in activities on behalf the union;

• threaten to harm workers or their property if they join or vote for a union;

• question employees about their union, activities or their support of a union;

• spy on or engage in surveillance of employees, or threaten or appear to do so, while they are engaging in union activities, such as talking to organizers or other workers about a union;

• offer or give employees higher wages, better working conditions, or increased benefits in order to influence workers' votes or support for a union;

• prohibit employees from engaging in union activities during breaks, lunch period, or before or after work, while on the employer's property;

• deny access to union organizers during the time periods established by the Board, or refuse to turn over current lists of employees' names and current residence addresses when requested by the Board;

• intimidate or prohibit employees from wearing union buttons, insignia or other symbols at work;

• in any other way interfere with, coerce or restrain employees in the exercise of their rights under the ALRA.

An employer commits an unfair labor practice by refusing to grant access to union organizers during the time periods established by the ALRB, if such a refusal interferes with employee rights. The employer may not create or control a "company union" or help one labor organization over another by giving money or any other kind of special privilege or support to the preferred organization. An employer or its agents, including supervisors, violates this prohibition by:

• pressuring employees to join a preferred labor organization, except under a lawful union security clause;

• organizing, aiding or supporting a union or committee of employees to represent workers concerning wages, hours and working conditions;

• asking employees or applicants for employment to sign authorization cards;

• giving a preferred labor organization extra time on company property in which to organize employees before an election while denying another organization a similar opportunity; and

• giving special privileges or information to one labor organization that are denied another, except under a lawful collective bargaining agreement.

It is an unfair labor practice under Labor Code section 1153(c) for an employer to discriminate in regard to hiring, or firing, or any term or condition of employment, so as to encourage or discourage membership in any labor organization. Under this section an employer may not treat any employee or potential employee differently because of union affiliation, involvement in union activities or support of any labor organization.

Thus, when an employer conditions hiring or continued employment on the employee's attitude towards unionization or support or activity on behalf of a particular union, the employer has engaged in an unfair labor practice.

An employer who discharges or punishes employees for filing grievances or because of union activity, or otherwise discriminates against employees by requiring them to work apart from other employees, transferring them to lower-paying or less-desirable jobs, or requiring them to use tools or instruments that make their labor more difficult because of their union affiliation or union activity, violates the ALRA because such actions tend to discourage union membership.

It is an unfair labor practice under Labor Code section 1153(d) for an employer to discharge or discriminate against an employee because the employee has filed charges or given testimony under the ALRA. Thus, an employer may not layoff, suspend, take action against, or in any other way discriminate against an employee because he or she has filed a charge, or a petition, attended or testified in a proceeding involving the ALRB, or given evidence or information in an ALRB investigation.

Strikes, Picketing and Economic Boycotts

Strikes, picketing, and economic boycotts are permitted under the ALRA, except that under certain circumstances, such activity may constitute unfair labor practices. Labor Code section 1154(d) prohibits strikes, picketing and economic boycotts where an object is to force an employer or self-employed person to join any labor organization or employer organization.

Under section 1154(d), a "secondary boycott" exists when a union engages in, or induces or encourages individuals to engage in, a strike and picketing against a neutral or secondary employer (one with which that union does not have a labor dispute). While a union may picket or strike the primary employer (one with which it has a legitimate labor dispute), a union may not try to force any other employer, person, or manufacturer with whom it does not have a dispute to cease dealing with the primary employer.

The ALRA permits publicity, including picketing, for the purpose of truthfully advising the public and consumers that a product or ingredient of a product is produced by an agricultural employer (the primary employer) with whom the union has a primary dispute and is distributed by another employer (the secondary employer). A union's picketing of the secondary employer is lawful as long as it does not have an effect of inducing any individual employed by that employer to cease delivering or performing services for the secondary employer and as long as such publicity does not have the effect of asking the public to stop patronizing the secondary employer. However, publicity that includes picketing and has the effect of requesting the public to cease patronizing such other employer shall be permitted only if the labor organization is currently certified as the representative of the primary employer's employees.

Remedies for Unfair Labor Practices

The ALRB can correct violations that may hinder employee rights to organize, engage in collective bargaining and concerted activities, and vote free from threats, coercion, restraint or interference. A party found to be in violation of the ALRA may be subject to a remedial order issued by the ALRB, providing, for example:

• restoration of employees to the position they would have been in but for the unfair labor practice; for example, making them whole for any pay or other money losses;

• reinstatement and backpay for wrongfully discharged workers;

• posting and reading a notice to workers that explains the party has engaged in an unfair labor practice and listing the specific unlawful activities it engaged in;

• allowing organizers to speak to employees on the employer's property beyond the usual time restrictions;

• providing bulletin boards of the employer's property for union communications;

• in cases where but for the bad faith of one party or another a contract would have been reached, the ALRB can make employees whole for the losses they suffered in not having a contract covering them;

• barring a union agent from engaging in organizing activities for one year in a certain region;

• the payment of costs to the charging party for a course of conduct amounting to frivolous litigation.