New York Farmworkers Seek to Challenge ‘Card Check’ & Uproot UFW Union Bosses
The following article is from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation’s bi-monthly Foundation Action Newsletter, January/February 2025 edition. To view other editions of Foundation Action or to sign up for a free subscription, click here.
Farmworkers fight union argument that New York labor law lets union bosses trap workers forever
Porpiglia Farms workers, who were targeted by an aggressive UFW ‘card check’ campaign against the farmworkers, are banding together to vote the union out and ensure that union officials reap what they have sown.
MARLBORO, NY – In 2020, the New York State Assembly passed a Big Labor-backed law that granted union officials sweeping new powers to impose their monopoly bargaining control over the state’s farmworkers. Since New York is one of 24 states that lacks a Right to Work law, the law authorizes union bosses to force farmworkers to pay union dues or else be fired.
But that’s not all: New York labor law went even further by mandating “card check” organizing, in which union officials deny workers a secret ballot union vote and instead claim majority support by submitting cards ostensibly showing worker support. These cards are often collected through pressure tactics, intimidation, or even threats.
But even that dramatic increase in power over the agricultural sector and agricultural workers is not enough for United Farm Workers (UFW) union officials.
UFW tyrants are advancing the cynical argument that, under New York law, workers can be forced into union ranks but can never escape forced unionism. They argue this to counter a recent National Right to Work Foundation-backed union decertification case for employees of Porpiglia Farms, an apple farm in the Hudson Valley of New York.
NY Fruit Farmworkers Seek Union Ouster After ‘Card Check’
Porpiglia employee Ricardo Bell submitted a petition last year in which he and his coworkers asked the New York Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) to hold a vote at the orchard on whether to remove the UFW. (Despite its name, PERB is responsible for enforcing labor law in both New York’s public and agricultural sectors.)
In late 2024, Foundation attorneys filed a brief for Bell countering union officials’ absurd argument that one card check drive should lock employees in a union forever. Additionally, more Foundation-backed decertification cases are sprouting up in both New York and other Big Labor-dominated states for farmworkers who are rejecting UFW officials’ card check schemes.
Brief Challenges Theory That Workers Have No Right to Remove Incumbent Union
Bell filed his decertification petition with Foundation legal aid after UFW union officials seized power at his workplace through a hasty card check unionization drive. His newest filing attacks union bosses’ contention that once a union is certified as the monopoly union “representative” of a work unit, there can be no option to remove it.
“[New York labor law] does not indicate that employees have a single chance at self-organization,” the brief says. “If that were the case, the very action of choosing a representative under [New York labor law] would deprive employees of the ability to exercise [their rights] in perpetuity….”
Foundation-Backed Workers Battle UFW ‘Card Checks’ Across Country
Since Bell’s filing, Foundation attorneys have also assisted in a union decertification effort for workers at Cherry Lawn Fruit Farms near Rochester, NY, who were targeted by a similar UFW card check campaign. These two groups of New York farmworkers join Foundation-backed employees of Wonderful Nurseries in California in challenging the UFW’s tactics.
Wonderful Nurseries workers still have multiple unfair labor practice charges pending against UFW bosses for deceptive behavior during an early 2024 card check drive. The charges detail UFW agents lying about the true purpose of cards that they collected from workers, and harassing workers who now back an effort to vote the union out.
“The aggressive and often demeaning tactics that UFW union officials use to seize control over agricultural workers show clearly why ‘card check’ is a bad idea in the agricultural sector, the public sector, and in any sector,” commented National Right to Work Foundation Vice President and Legal Director William Messenger. “UFW officials are arguing that workers should have little or no chance at all to challenge a union’s ascent to power by this process.
“The idea that workers have no ability to eject a union once it is installed in power further demonstrates that this is not about workers’ choices at all, only about union bosses’ power over workers, even when workers overwhelmingly want nothing to do with union bosses’ so-called ‘representation,’” added Messenger.
New York Farmworkers Defend Effort to Vote UFW Union Out of Power in Case at NY State Labor Relations Board
UFW union officials gained power through “card check” and denied workers secret ballot vote, now stonewalling employee request for union removal
Marlboro, NY (October 8, 2024) – Employees of Porpiglia Farms, an apple grower located in Upstate New York, are taking legal action to defend their effort to remove the United Farm Workers (UFW) union from power. Porpiglia employee Ricardo Bell, who is leading the worker effort to oust the union, just filed a brief at the New York Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) refuting several arguments UFW lawyers put forth for why the employees’ union decertification petition should be dismissed. Bell is receiving free legal aid from National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation staff attorneys.
The workers’ petition to kick the union out comes after UFW union agents foisted a hasty “card check” unionization drive on the farm employees. New York labor law mandates card check, and prohibits employers from insisting on secret ballot union elections.
Under the card check process, union officials bypass a traditional secret ballot union election and instead solicit union authorization cards directly from workers, which are later counted as “votes” for the union. Due to the lack of privacy in this method, workers are frequently subjected to pressure tactics, intimidation, or even threats by union agents.
After the UFW union gained power in the workplace using card check, Bell and his coworkers filed a union decertification petition with PERB challenging the union’s claims of majority status. PERB is New York’s agency in charge of enforcing state labor law for both the public and agricultural sectors, which includes managing representation proceedings to install and remove unions.
Union officials tried to block Bell’s petition by filing a motion to dismiss the case completely. UFW union officials claim they are entitled to an “insulated period” after the card check drive during which employees are barred from trying to remove the union. Bell’s latest filing in the case defends the union decertification petition and refutes all the arguments in the union’s motion to dismiss.
Worker Attacks Specious Union Arguments Against Letting Workers Vote to Oust Union
Bell’s brief notably attacks UFW union lawyers’ theory that once a union is certified as the monopoly union “representative” of all employees in a work unit, there can be no option at all to remove an unwanted union. “[New York labor law] does not indicate that employees have a single chance at self-organization, and once they make a choice, they are no longer permitted to make any other choice regarding self-organization,” the brief says. “If that were the case, the very action of choosing a representative under Section 703 would deprive employees of the ability to exercise Section 703 in perpetuity….”
The response brief also refutes union officials’ tyrannical contention that foisting a card check union campaign on the workplace should grant them a period of immunity from employees submitting another representation petition (including one to remove an incumbent union). “In fact, PERB’s FLFLPA regulations say the opposite…not only do the FLFLPA regulations not include an insulated period, PERB explicitly denied a request to add one via regulation,” the brief says.
In California, Foundation attorneys are aiding farmworkers from Wonderful Nurseries, the largest grapevine nursery in the U.S., in a similar situation. In unfair labor practice charges filed with the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board (ALRB), Wonderful Nurseries workers state that UFW union officials lied about the true purpose of cards that they collected from workers during a card check campaign that they used to sweep to power, and even presented English union authorization cards to Spanish-speaking employees whom they knew wouldn’t understand. They now report that UFW union officials are harassing and threatening employees who support an effort to vote the UFW out.
“The aggressive and often demeaning tactics that UFW union officials use to seize power over agricultural workers show clearly why ‘card check’ is a bad idea in the agricultural sector, the public sector, and in any sector,” commented National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “Forcing any workers under union representation they oppose is fundamentally wrong and anti-worker, and it is especially egregious when union organizers are authorized to do so through the unreliable and abuse-prone ‘card check’ scheme.”
