Bias Probe Clears Farm Labor Unit

State Auditor General Thomas W. Hayes testified Wednesday that an investigation of the perennially troubled Agricultural Labor Relations Board turned up no evidence that the board is biased in favor of farm workers or their employers.

“We didn’t find any evidence of intentional bias on either side,” Hayes told a hearing of the Joint Legislative Audit Committee, which ordered him last June to investigate the agency’s performance in administering the historic 1975 law that was designed to restore peace to the fields.

Virtually from the outset, the board appointed by then-Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. was accused of a pro-worker bias at the expense of agricultural employers. Under Gov. George Deukmejian, the board’s independent general counsel, Dave Stirling, has been charged by labor with favoring farmers and giving short shrift to workers.

The board currently consists of three Brown appointees and two Deukmejian members. Deukmejian’s appointees will gain majority control in January when the term of Jerome Waldie, a former Democratic congressman, expires. As general counsel, Stirling is the agency’s chief prosecutor and has been involved in one fight after another with the board’s majority.

During his election campaign and later, Deukmejian insisted that he would realign the board, which oversees union representation elections and deals with unfair labor charges, to make it “fair.”

Hayes conducted a nearly yearlong audit of the agency’s operations and filed a statistical report detailing the disposition of unfair labor practice charges filed during the last nine years by both employers and labor organizations.

He reminded the committee that it was not within the scope of his investigation to “second guess” the board’s decisions and that he did not specifically study the issue of bias.

However, in response to questions from lawmakers, Hayes said: “As an auditor, we didn’t find any direct evidence of bias. It appears as though the legal system is upholding the board’s decisions on a large number of cases . . . both ways.”

Hayes said that under Stirling, a former Republican assemblyman, the number of unfair labor practice cases dismissed by the general counsel’s staff had increased dramatically.

“We’re taking a harder look at all charges,” Stirling told the committee. Previously, he said, some charges were accepted for action although they were “very thin.”

Waldie, an outspoken opponent of Stirling, charged that Stirling is deliberately delaying enforcement of the board’s decisions in favor of labor until he leaves and the governor will get a majority on the board.

“Compliance work is being done each day and is proceeding,” argued Stirling, asserting that under his administration the agency has collected $1.3 million from growers in settlements and distributed it to farm workers.