[File: Liz Kern/KMJ]FRESNO,CA (KMJ) – A court ruling Wednesday forces the count of Central Valley farmworker votes.
Ballots cast in the UFW decertification vote must be counted in a decision by the Fifth District Court of Appeals.
“This is a huge victory – these farmworkers have been fighting for this for a long, long time,” said Assemblyman Jim Patterson (R-Fresno).
Gerawan Farming, Inc., is the largest grower of peaches, plums and nectarines in the United States, with approximately 5,000 workers.
In 1990, the United Farmworkers of America (UFW) was certified as the bargaining representative for Gerawan workers.
After some disputes, the board certified the election in 1992. The parties did some bargaining -the UFW offered a contract proposal in 1994, which Gerawan rejected.
The union then disappeared from Gerawan’s fields for years before resurfacing in 2012 and requesting further bargaining sessions.
In 2013, Gerawan farmworkers voted whether or not to break away from the UFW.
Since then, thousands of votes have been locked up by the Agricultural Labor Relations Board resulting in years of protest by the workers.
“This moment is the next step in the most important civil rights battle of our time,” said Assemblyman Patterson. “More than 2,600 immigrant farmworkers from the Central Valley cast their ballots to determine their own future. Those votes were locked up tight and have been stowed away by the ALRB – the same agency whose job it is to protect the rights of farmworkers.”
[File Liz Kern/KMJ]
On Wednesday, May 30th, the appeals court reversed the ALRB’s decision not to count the Gerawan farming workers vote.
“The court is on their side, and I think sooner than later these ballots are going to get counted, and they will have had a very important say in their working conditions, the contracts they have, the pay that they get,” said Assemblyman Patterson. “They finally have been given the respect and the fundamental rights to choose and to vote that the ALRB has stripped from them.”
The 138 page opinion can be seen HERE. The decision will now go to the ALRB.
Click to listen to the report by KMJ’s Liz Kern:
