California Ag TODAY: ALRB ORDERS ELECTION AT GERAWAN FARMS

Statement by Ray, Mike, Dan and Norma Gerawan Farming on new ALRB Decision

Fresno, CA – Gerawan Farming congratulates our many workers who, this morning, prevailed in their fight for the most basic right in a democratic society – the right to vote. The Board’s November 1, 2013 Order Vacating the Regional Director’s dismissal of the Petition for Decertification is a victory for workers across this State. An election shall be held at Gerawan Farming on Tuesday, November 1, 2013 Order. For the first time in over 23 years, the UFW will face the will of the workers.

Today’s decision is an historic event. The victory belongs to those workers who never gave up hope that the Board would listen to their pleas.

We are humbled by the perseverance of so many workers who refused to give up in their quest to hold a secret ballot election.

For the second time this week, the Board overturned a decision by the Regional Director that would have snuffed out that right. In this latest decision, The Board makes it clear that the Regional Director’s “last minute,” “eleventh-hour charges” in a “late filed complaint” left the Board “with serious doubts as to the propriety of using that complaint to block the election.” The Board rebukes the Regional Director for falling to mention statements he made in Fresno superior Court, where he told Judge Jeffrey Hamilton that Gerawan and the Board remedied some of the alleged unfair labor practice charges he now claims justify blocking the election.

On Tuesday, November 4^th, millions of Americans will go the polls to choose their elected officials, It is fitting that Gerawan’s workers will be given the chance on that same day to exercise that same sacred right to decide their own economic destiny.

The Board made the obvious, just, and long overdue decision to let an election go forward.

We congratulate every one of our workers.