By Blake Jackson
Employees at Porpiglia Farms, an apple grower in Upstate New York, are taking legal action to defend the United Farm Workers (UFW) union from representing them.
Ricardo Bell, a farm employee leading the effort, recently filed a brief with the New York Public Employment Relations Board (PERB), challenging the UFW's legal arguments for dismissing the workers' union decertification petition. Bell is receiving legal assistance from attorneys at the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation.
The workers are seeking to decertify the union after the UFW used a “card check” process to gain representation at the farm.
Under New York labor law, card check unionization is mandatory, meaning employers cannot request a secret ballot election. Instead, union representatives gather authorization cards from workers and count them as votes. However, this method lacks privacy and often leads to intimidation or pressure from union officials.
After the card check drive, Bell and his colleagues submitted a petition to PERB, questioning the union's majority status. PERB, which oversees labor relations for public and agricultural sectors in New York, is responsible for handling such representation disputes.
In response, UFW officials moved to have Bell’s petition dismissed, arguing that they are entitled to a period of “insulation” following the card check, during which employees cannot challenge the union’s authority.
Bell's brief counters the UFW’s position, specifically rejecting the notion that employees lose their right to reconsider union representation after a card check.
The brief states, “[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.” It also challenges the claim that the card check process grants the union immunity from decertification efforts, pointing out that PERB regulations do not provide for such a protected period.
“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.”
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Categories: New York, Business, Government & Policy