BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — A California appeals court has dismissed a lawsuit, complicating Wonderful Nurseries’ attempt to overturn a state farmworker unionization law.
On Tuesday, a three-judge panel of the 5th District Court of Appeal in Fresno unanimously agreed to toss the case.
“We now conclude, in line with both our Legislature’s command and a long judicial history supporting it, that the trial court lacked jurisdiction to consider this case,” Justice Rosendo Peña Jr. wrote in a court filing.
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In February of 2024, United Farm Workers of America tried creating a union at facilities owned by Wonderful by filing a “Majority Support Petition” with the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board.
This petition allows a union to become the exclusive bargaining representative for all employees if the majority wishes to be represented by the organization.
A California labor law, known as the card check law, was signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2022 and allows farmworkers to express support for labor representation with a signed authorization card.
UFW submitted 327 valid signed cards from Wonderful employees supporting the unionization, according to court documents. There were 640 employees in total during that time.
Wonderful disagreed with the petition and the state law, documents said. In a lawsuit filed against the union and ALRB in May, the company accused UFW of engaging in misconduct.
Wonderful asked the court to halt ALRB proceedings regarding the certification of UFW as the employee representative and declare the state law unconstitutional, according to court filings.
Both the union and ALRB opposed the lawsuit, saying the trial court lacked jurisdiction and therefore couldn’t even consider the case.
The appeals court dismissed the suit on the basis that an employer like Wonderful can’t challenge a union certification outside of an unfair labor practices proceeding except in rare cases, which Wonderful failed to show they fall under.
Craig Cooper, general counsel of The Wonderful Company, said in a statement on Tuesday the court ruling doesn’t prevent the Superior Court from finding the card check law to be unconstitutional, which is a decision that Wonderful “(looks) forward to.”
“The decision explicitly does not address the merits of Wonderful Nurseries’ constitutional challenge, which a lower court has already concluded has merit, and does not in any way interfere with the lawsuit that two dozen Wonderful Nurseries employees have brought challenging the legality of this forced unionization scheme,” Cooper said in the statement.
“The United Farm Workers is pleased that the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Appellate District ruled in favor of farm workers, and that this legal challenge for farm workers’ rights is behind us, UFW spokesperson Antonio De Loera-Brust said in an email to 17 News. “Every farm worker in California has rights under the law, and those rights need to be protected.”
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17 News has reached out to ALRB for comment.
ALRB and UFW will get their court fees back in all matters resolved through this dismissal, according to documents.
Read the full court decision here.
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