California Ag TODAY: ALJ ISSUES DECISION IN TRI-FANUCCHI FARMS, INC.

Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) Thomas Sobel, issued his 23-page decision TODAY in the Tri-Fanucchi Farms, Inc., Case heard in Visalia on October 21, 2013.

After a long hiatus in bargaining, the United Farm Workers of America, AFL-CIO requested information from and a meeting with Tri-Fanucchi, a farm near Bakersfield.

Tri-Fanucchi refused to provide information to the Union, to recognize the Union as the collective bargaining representative of its employees, and to bargain with the Union on the grounds that UFW had abandoned the farmworkers for 24 years.

ALJ Sobel ruled that the Tri-Fanucchi’s claim of Union abandonment is not available under the Agricultural Labor Relations Act (ALRA) and that, in view of the company’s admissions, the allegations in the Union’s Complaint must be taken as true.

Tri-Fanucchi was ordered, among other things, to provide information to, and to recognize and meet and bargain with the Union as the collective bargaining representative of its employees.

Tri-Fanucchi was also mandated to post the following:

NOTICE TO AGRICULTURAL EMPLOYEES

After investigating charges that were filed by the United Farm Workers of America, in the Visalia Office of the Agricultural Labor Relations Board (ALRB), the General Counsel of the ALRB issued a complaint that we had violated the law. After a hearing at which all parties had an opportunity to present evidence, the ALRB found that we had violated the Agricultural Labor Relations Act (Act) by failing to supply the Union with information to which it was entitled under the Act.

The ALRB has told us to post and publish this Notice.

The Agricultural Labor Relations Act is a law that gives you and all other farm workers in California these rights:

1. To organize yourselves;

2. To form, join or help a labor organization or bargaining representative;

3. To vote in a secret ballot election to decide whether you want a union to represent you;

4. To bargain with your employer about your wages and working conditions through a union chosen by a majority of the employees and certified by the Board;

5. To act together with other workers to help and protect one another; and

6. To decide not to do any of these things.

Because you have these rights, we promise that:

WE WILL NOT refuse to provide the Union with information necessary to foster informed collective bargaining.

WE WILL NOT refuse to meet and to bargain collectively and in good faith with the Union as the representative of our employees for the purpose of collective bargaining.

WE WILL NOT in any like or related manner, refuse to bargain with the Union over wages, hours or conditions of employment, or interfere with, restrain or coerce employees from exercising their right under the Act

If you have any questions about your rights as farm workers or about this Notice, you may contact any office of the Agricultural Labor Relations Board.