The U.S. Supreme Court is considering an appeal filed by attorneys for a strawberry grower in Doris and a packing company in Fresno, challenging a state law that allows union access to private agricultural property to recruit workers into union membership.
Fowler Packing Co. is a co-litigant in the case along with Cedar Point Nursery, a strawberry grower in Doris, located in the Butte Valley of northern California.
The two companies are challenging a 1975 state law under the auspices of the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board that allows union members onto farms for the purpose of soliciting union membership.
Fowler and Cedar Point allege that the union access regulation violates both the Fourth and Fifth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution.
The suit was dismissed by the California Eastern District Court in 2016, a decision upheld on appeal by the Ninth Circuit Court. However, the Supreme Court justices said they would review the case.
Fowler is one of the largest ag production companies in the Central Valley and employs 2,500 workers. The company refused to allow union recruiters onto its property. Union members did, however, gain access to Cedar Point.
Damien Schiff, attorney for the plaintiffs with the Pacific Legal Foundation, told the Northern California Record a win in court would not mean the 1975 law would be stricken from the books.
“A win (in court) would indicate that if it (state) wanted to keep enforcing this, it is going to have to offer compensation,” Schiff said.
The suit was filed against the United Farm Workers Union after an incident in 2015 where union organizers came onto the Cedar Point property allegedly without prior notice, shouting at workers on bullhorns, entering growing sheds and the plaintiff claims, disrupting the business at the height of its season.
Mike Fahner, owner of Cedar Point, said he was stunned by the aggressiveness of the union action which took place at 5 a.m. in the morning.
“It was surreal, a bit scary and wrong,” Fahner said during a recent press call organized by his lawyers.
Schiff said a majority of the high court justices, those of a more conservative bent, seem to sympathize with the petitioners Fowler and Cedar Point.
He agreed California law grants more leeway to union organizers to enter agricultural private property than federal law does.
“Yes, compared to federal law, where the unions would only have the right to access employer property if the employees were otherwise inaccessible,” Schiff said.
Schiff added that the actions of the union organizers in this case went way beyond merely handing out (pro-union) literature to workers.
“Zealous use of the access right is what precipitated the lawsuit,” he said.
Schiff said the state if it wants to keep enforcing the access law it should offer compensation to the grower and come up with a process to assess what that compensation should be.
“The union came into the working sheds on Cedar Point property, they didn’t simply hand out things,” he said. “They had bull horns and placards, there was shouting and disruption. It got everybody’s attention.”
Schiff said he expects a Supreme Court decision by June.
Information on the case is available on the Pacific Legal Foundation website.