Sep 19, 2018Gerawan workers win election to oust the United Farm Workers union
Five years ago, workers at Gerawan Farming voted out the United Farm Worker’s union by an overwhelming margin. But they only learned the result of their 2013 vote on Tuesday.
The final tally was 1,098 against the union and 197 in favor of the UFW.
Although the election took place in November 2013, the ballots had been impounded amid legal challenges by both the union and Gerawan.
Gerawan Farming is a family grower of peaches, citrus, and almonds in the Fresno area. The farm is known as the preferred employer for up to 5,000 workers. Gerawan has a history of paying the highest wages, being hyper-compliant with labor laws, and providing the best overall compensation package in the industry.
Gerawan Statement on the results of the Nov. 5, 2013 decertification election:
“Our employees have been waiting since November 2013 for their votes to be counted. After a historic struggle, they achieved that right today, in spite of the efforts by the UFW and the millions of taxpayer dollars spent by the Agricultural Labor Relations Board to deny them that right.
The final vote count was 1,098 “No Union,” and 197 for the UFW. The employees overwhelmingly rejected the UFW as their bargaining representative – by a 5 to 1 margin – in spite of the ALRB’s last-minute, election day refusal to count approximately 640 ballots challenged by the UFW.
A secret ballot election is intended to embody and reflect the workers’ fundamental right to choose their representation. That right is at the heart of what the Agricultural Labor Relations Act is designed to protect and promote. Today’s vote tally leaves no doubt what our employees want. It is a ringing endorsement of their right to choose, and a repudiation of concerted, unlawful, and anti-democratic efforts to deny them that right.
We call on the UFW and the ALRB to respect the choices of farmworkers, to certify the results of the election, and to decertify the UFW. We call on the Legislature and the Governor to take immediate steps to ensure that the ALRB’s violation of the basic human rights of farmworkers never occurs again in California.”
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