The Agricultural Labor Relations Board is taking public comment on a draft regulation to implement Gov. Gavin Newsom’s card check deal with United Farm Workers.
Farm groups are pressing the board to clarify the rules in some areas and allow for more flexibility in others. Employers have raised alarms for years that the system would allow the union to submit a farmworker’s signature up to a year after collecting it, regardless of whether the employee has a had a change of heart or left the company. In several comment letters to ALRB, the groups call for allowing workers to rescind their signatures.
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The industry is also pushing to require that the union inform workers they are waiving the right to a secret ballot election when signing a UFW card. Verifying the authenticity of those signatures and that the employee still works at the company are priorities for the groups as well, though regional labor boards are pushing back on the requests, reasoning they would scare workers away from elections.
The Western Growers Association is asking the agency to promptly finalize the regulation. It noted that considerable delays since the start of the discussion last year have created uncertainty for employers and farmworkers and that some petitions lack a clear legal framework for enforcement.
