UFW Is Ruled Not Liable for Bad-Faith Talks

In a major decision released Monday, the state Agricultural Labor Relations Board ruled that a union that bargains in bad faith with an employer cannot be forced to compensate workers who lost wages as a result of the union’s actions.

In a unanimous decision issued in Sacramento, the five-member board decided that a section of the state’s farm labor law that requires growers who fail to bargain in good faith to pay compensation to workers does not similarly apply to unions.

The board’s general counsel, David Stirling, had argued that similar penalties should be applied to unions, contending that monetary sanctions would be a strong deterrent to bad-faith bargaining by unions.

But the board ruled that when the Legislature enacted the Agricultural Labor Relations Act in 1975, it gave the agency the authority to apply such sanctions only against employers. The decision quotes legislative testimony to that effect from California Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird, who was secretary of Agriculture and Services at the time the law was enacted.

Monday’s ruling arose out of a case involving the United Farm Workers Union and Maggio Inc., which used to be a major vegetable grower in the Imperial and Salinas valleys. Although the board found that the UFW engaged in bad-faith bargaining with Maggio, it declined to order the union to compensate workers who may have lost wage increases because of the union’s conduct.

Union Actions

The decision says that the UFW refused to meet at reasonable times with Maggio to negotiate a collective-bargaining agreement during a 34-month period beginning early in 1982. The union also delayed and failed to present counterproposals or proposals of its own and failed to furnish relevant information requested by Maggio, according to the decision.

Maggio employees are still working under terms of a contract that expired in 1979, according to Merrill Storms, a company attorney interviewed by telephone at his El Centro office. At that time the UFW conducted a major strike against several Imperial Valley vegetable growers. The events that led to Monday’s ruling began after that strike had concluded, even though the UFW and Maggio had not reached agreement.

At the time the strike began, Maggio employed about 800 workers seasonally. That number has been reduced to 100, Storms said, because Maggio has stopped growing lettuce and broccoli and has reduced its farming operations, now harvesting only green-top carrots. At one time, Maggio was the nation’s largest grower and processor of carrots.

Storms said he was disappointed that the union would not be forced to pay compensation. He said the firm asked the board to force the UFW to pay the difference between previous wage rates and the increase offered by the company but rejected by the union as too low. Storms said he was not sure how much that would be.

Storms said he was unlikely to appeal the decision.

“It would cost my client money, and all he’s going to prove is a principle,” Storms said. “The money goes to the employees.”

The compensation provision was put into the landmark Agricultural Labor Relations Act when it was passed in 1975 in an attempt to give more weight to decisions of the ALRB that went against an employer. There is no such remedy in the National Labor Relations Act of 1935, which excludes agricultural workers.

Appeal Planned

Diana Lyons, a UFW lawyer, said the union will appeal the board’s decision on the bad-faith bargaining issue.

Both she and Storms said the two sides were still bargaining, but both indicated that they were not near agreement.

Under the board decision, the UFW is ordered to begin bargaining in good faith and to post notices of the decision at sites where Maggio employees work.