Workers Vindicated: UFW Finally Decertified At Gerawan Farming

It’s been over five years since the workers at Gerawan Farming voted to dercitify the United Farm Workers. The UFW was certified at Gerawan in 1990, but then abandoned the workers for nearly two decades. When the UFW returned in 2012, they demanded that Gerawan’s 5,000 employees, few of whom were present for the 1990 election, pay union dues or else lose their employment.

The workers chose a third option: they voted to decertify the union in 2013. But the UFW — aided by the union-friendly California Labor Relations Board — impounded the ballots and refused to let them be counted. Gerawan appealed the decision all the way to the Supreme Court. While the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case, the California Supreme Court gave the workers the victory they hoped for. The Court ordered the ballots counted and chastised the Labor Relations Board for its actions that “unnecessarily disenfranchised the workers.”

The final tally revealed that the workers voted 5 to 1 in favor of decertifying the UFW.