U.S. Supreme Court hears case on union access

The U.S. Supreme Court is hearing a case that challenges California’s 45-year-old access regulation for union representatives.

The underlying case was brought by two California agricultural employers, Cedar Point Nursery and Fowler Packing Company, Inc., according to a news release. In the lawsuit, the growers assert that the regulation takes their property without just compensation in violation of the Fifth Amendment by allowing union organizers to enter their property without their consent. 

In a brief filed Feb. 6 in the U.S. Supreme Court, the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board said it defends the state’s access regulation,

“At its core this lawsuit is an attempt to disenfranchise farmworkers and deprive them of basic information about their right to organize and chill any attempt by farmworkers to exercise that basic labor right,” Victoria Hassid, chair of the ALRB, said in the release. “The board is committed to ensuring that all farmworkers in California have the tools necessary to exercise their labor rights.”

Jason Resnick, senior vice president and general counsel for Western Growers, said the group supports the grower lawsuit challenging the regulation.

“Western Growers and our coalition partners felt it was important to file an amicus brief in this case because the U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly held that the right of private property owners to exclude third parties is sacrosanct, safeguarded by the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution and court precedent,” Resnick said in the release. “California upended that proposition to favor one group – organized labor – authorizing union organizers to solicit farmworkers on the farm for 120 days each year. 

“Even assuming there once was a valid reason for this kind of authorized trespass when the rule was adopted 45 years ago, there is no longer,” Resnick said in the release. “Workers are now solicited regularly by union organizers on their smartphones, by radio advertising, and directly in the communities where they live and work. The regulation has outlived its usefulness.”

The Supreme Court’s online docket for the case is available online United States Supreme Court Case Number 20-107, Cedar Point Nursery, et al., Petitioners v. Victoria Hassid, et al.