Posts tagged farmworker

    Hudson Valley Farmworker Challenges PERB Official’s Dismissal of Employee Petition Seeking Removal of UFW Union Officials

    August 26, 2025 // Despite the fact he submitted a petition containing enough of his colleagues’ signatures to trigger a union decertification vote, Bell’s latest filing reports that the PERB’s Acting Director of Private Employment Practices and Representation refused to process his petition on the basis of four unproven claims of wrongdoing that UFW union officials filed against Porpiglia Farms management. At both state and federal labor boards, union officials often file such allegations (usually called “blocking charges”) to stop workers from exercising their right to vote a union out of power at a workplace –

    Mills First Two Vetos Nix Farmworker Unionization and Indigent Defense Bills

    June 25, 2025 // “LD 588 is substantively identical to L.D. 525 in the 131st Legislature, a bill of the same name that I vetoed. Because the bill is unchanged, so too is my veto letter,” Mills wrote. “(It) would create a new legal framework governing labor-management relations in Maine’s agricultural sector. The bill would authorize agricultural workers to engage in certain concerted activity, and create a new regulatory structure for complaints, hearings and enforcement by the Maine Labor Relations Board. This is complex legislation with cross references to federal law, including the National Labor Relations Act.” Mills added that “against this background I cannot subject our farmers to a complicated new set of labor laws that will require a lawyer just to understand. Now is not the time to impose a new regulatory burden on our agricultural sector, and particularly not family-owned farms that are not well positioned to know and understand their obligations under a new such law.”

    Judge grants temporary halt in UFW’s unionization of Wonderful Co. nursery workers

    July 21, 2024 // Within days, Wonderful accused the UFW of having baited the employees into signing the authorization cards under the guise of helping them apply for $600 each in federal relief for farmworkers who labored during the pandemic. The company submitted nearly 150 signed declarations from nursery workers saying they had not understood that by signing the cards they were voting to unionize.

    Billionaire California growers battle farmworker union over biggest victory under new law

    March 17, 2024 // Three workers, who now want their vote revoked, say they merely attended meetings and signed cards for the $600 relief payments and never wanted to join a union. They described feeling “tricked” and “lied to” by UFW organizers, while also pointing to the 3% dues that would be required by joining. They also struggled to recall specifics of when they met up with UFW organizers and if the cards they signed contained wording to make UFW their union bargaining representative.

    What a Surge in Union Organizing Means for Food and Farm Workers

    March 25, 2022 // By organizing with the Warehouse Workers for Justice, many were able to get their jobs back and have their demands met. “What’s really interesting is that there’s a huge movement right now for worker centers and unions to work together ... to essentially surround the industry,” Oliva said. “So if an employer busts the union, the worker center emerges. If the worker center is unable to organize the workers, the union organizes them.”

    advancing rulemaking Alendra Harris Amazon Andrew Walchuk antithetical benefits broader inequities Buffalo bus drivers California campaigns for state and federal laws Cargill Cargill is the largest privately held company in the U.S. Cesar Chavez citrus Civil Eats collective bargaining Colorado contract corporate consolidation Covid custodian deadly heat Department of Homeland Security director of strategic campaigns. DOL Dolores Huerta East Coast states Eater Elizabeth Strater Farm Labor Organizing Committee Farm Workers farms farmworker Farmworker Justice farmworker unions farmworkers Fast Food federal law FLOC food chain Food Chain Workers Alliance food giants food industry food insecure food sector food service food system Food Unions Greeley grocery stores guest workers H-2A H-2A visa hazard pay HEAL Food Alliance illegal workers immigrant immigration enforcement income inequality industrial engineers industry-wide movement investigation JBS JBS USA beef plant Jennifer Abruzzo Jose Oliva Kentucky Kroger-owned stores labor rights for food workers Larry Itliong Lisa Held Local 338 RWDSU Local 338 RWDSU/UFCW Long Island lowest average wage Mars Wrigley Mayfield medical technicians middle class shrunk migrant workers mistreatment of workers mushrooms National Labor Relations Act National Labor Relations Board negotiate contract New York New York Farm Laborers Fair Labor Practices Act New York’s Farm Laborers Fair Labor Practices Act Noemi Barrera North America o go to work to pick o promote worker organizing Oregon organizing overtime pay overtime protections package food Pandemic personal days Pilgrim’s Pride Pindar Vineyards pluck PPE processing facilities progressive co-workers providing identity information public assistance programs Public Employment Relations Board Republican lawmakers restaurants food production facilities retaliation service-based industries sick days silence employees Smithfield social distancing staff training Starbucks Strike Superior Supply chain surround the industry temporary migrant workers Texas Texas potato farm The Deep Dish the union organizes them tomatoes traditional unions Tyson U.S. House of Representatives report UFCW UFCW International UFCW members UFW undocumented undocumented workers union election union organizing union representation unions United Farm Workers United Food and Commercial Workers university medical campuses unorganizable industry vaccination visa Waco wages Walmart Warehouse Workers for Justice Washington White House Task Force on Worker Organizing and Empowerment Whole Foods wine grapes work conditions Worker Centers worker safety committee workers banded larger movement workers’ rights young co-workers