Considered one of California’s largest agricultural employers plans to shut a Central Valley grape nursery by the top of the yr after shedding tons of of workers, together with many supportive of a United Farm Staff effort to unionize the workforce.
Great Co., owned by billionaires Stewart and Lynda Resnick, plans to close down nearly all of the nursery in Wasco, northwest of Bakersfield, and donate the farm to UC Davis, representatives for the corporate and the college confirmed this week.
The transfer comes as Great Nurseries stays locked in a battle with the UFW after the union final yr petitioned to signify staff rising grapevines, utilizing a brand new state “card test” regulation that made it simpler for organizers to enroll staff. Firm officers stated their determination was unrelated to that.
“The choice to wind down Great Nurseries was purely a enterprise determination and by no means, form or type associated to our ongoing litigation with the UFW or the fraud so many farm staff reported by the union,” Great Co. spokesman Seth Oster stated.
In February, Great Nurseries President Rob C. Yraceburu stated in an electronic mail to workers that the state’s agricultural business has seen tens of 1000’s of orchard and winery acres deserted or eliminated. The desk and wine grape business is in a significant downturn, which means nurseries corresponding to theirs have seen “considerably decreased gross sales and document losses, with no expectation of a turnaround anytime quickly.”
But some labor specialists and Great workers are questioning the timing of the layoffs, which began simply 5 months after the UFW gained a key authorized victory in its effort to arrange the workforce.
Victor Narro, a labor research professor at UCLA, stated the closure and donation to UC Davis needs to be scrutinized.
“The query is, what’s the explanation they’re doing it?” he stated. “Is it actually, ultimately, to keep away from unionization of the workforce? Or is it actually that they’re making a sound monetary determination?”
The UFW has indirectly accused the Resnicks of retaliating in opposition to staff supportive of the union by closing the farm. However it has raised questions in regards to the timing of each the layoffs and this week’s affirmation the nursery can be closed.
The doorway to Great Nurseries on March 25, 2024, in Wasco, Calif.
(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Instances)
At its seasonal peak, the 1,400-acre nursery employs about 600 staff who would have been a part of the bargaining unit, however now solely 20 nonetheless work on the facility, stated Elizabeth Strater, director of strategic campaigns for the union. Total, about 100 workers now work there, based on the corporate.
Yraceburu instructed workers there will likely be a phasedown in shutting the grape nursery. Staff, together with these employed by farm labor contractors, could have a chance to use for different Great worksites, he stated. An organization spokesman stated no different Great farm is dealing with an analogous discount in workforce.
The nursery has been working at a major loss for a number of years, Oster stated, however he didn’t say for the way lengthy or simply how a lot it has misplaced.
It was not instantly clear whether or not UC Davis will acknowledge the farmworkers union as soon as the college takes management of the nursery.
In a press release, UC Davis spokesperson Invoice Kisliuk stated the college is grateful for the reward, which incorporates the Wasco facility mixed with a $5-million startup donation. The college will type an implementation committee to plan the use of the power, Kisliuk stated.
Though the college has an extended historical past of respecting labor agreements, he stated, the tutorial use of the positioning will likely be considerably completely different from the present industrial operation.
“This reward expands and builds upon one of many world’s main agricultural analysis applications and can catalyze discovery and innovation,” he stated. “We look ahead to working with the Great Firm to efficiently switch the Wasco amenities and property to the College later this yr.”
The Resnicks are large donors to state politicians and charities, however their philanthropy has been the goal of current union organizing efforts. In late July, UFW and different labor organizers gathered outdoors the Hammer Museum, the recipient of greater than $30 million in donations from the Resnicks, who’ve a constructing named after them. The gathering got here after the union launched a video that appeared to point out a Great worker paying different staff to take part in an anti-union protest.
Within the video, the employee, who has been a forefront anti-union advocate and has organized protests, is seen handing out $100 payments from the trunk of a automobile and inspiring staff to signal a sheet. In a separate video, she might be heard saying that she was directed to first feed everybody, hand out $100 after which they might obtain a further $50.
The unedited variations of the movies had been proven throughout a listening to earlier than an administrative regulation choose for the state Agricultural Labor Relations Board, the place Great Co. has challenged the UFW’s petition to signify the nursery workers. The board oversees collective bargaining for farmworkers within the state and likewise investigates costs of unfair labor practices.
Great Nurseries in Wasco.
(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Instances)
Now that Great is closing its Wasco grape nursery, it’s unclear what is going to occur within the proceedings, as a result of there’ll quickly be no staff to unionize. However the board might situation a ruling that will have an effect on future disputes.
The UFW and Great Co. have traded accusations during the last yr: The corporate accused the union of utilizing $600 in COVID-19 federal reduction funds to trick farmworkers into signing the authorization playing cards. The corporate submitted practically 150 signed declarations from nursery staff saying they’d not understood that by signing the playing cards they had been voting to unionize.
The UFW has rejected these accusations and, with the video, is suggesting that staff had been paid to protest in opposition to the unionization effort on the peak of the back-and-forth a yr in the past.
Rosa M. Silva, a Great Nurseries employee for the final six years, stated tensions have lengthy been operating excessive on the nursery, with some co-workers saying they don’t have a proper to ask for raises or advantages. She stated she believes that the corporate would quite shut down the nursery to keep away from negotiating with them, a declare that Great has forcefully rejected.
In July, Silva took a day without work work and rallied outdoors the Hammer Museum. Protesters handed out fliers that learn: “Inform Great Firm’s billionaire house owners: Respect the farm staff. Cease spending cash preventing the United Farm Staff.”
“That is my message to the Resnicks: in case you may give tens of millions to this artwork museum, which a majority of your staff won’t ever go to, why can’t you additionally pay your staff one thing honest?” she stated on the protest. “If you happen to care a lot about being revered by artists and lovers of artwork, why can’t you respect the individuals who plant, develop and harvest the merchandise you promote?”
The UFW filed its petition with the labor board in February final yr, asserting {that a} majority of the 600-plus farmworkers at Great Nurseries in Wasco had signed the authorization playing cards and asking that the UFW be licensed as their union consultant.
On the time, it seemed to be the UFW’s third victorious unionization drive in a matter of months — following diminishing membership charges during the last a number of years.
Below the regulation, a union can set up farmworkers by inviting them to signal authorization playing cards at off-site conferences with out notifying their employer. Below the previous guidelines, farmworkers voted on union illustration by secret poll at a polling web site designated by the state labor board, sometimes on employer property. The state regulation has since revitalized the union’s organizing efforts, and it has gone on to arrange different farms.
Great has sued the state to cease the card-check regulation. A ruling by a Kern County Superior Courtroom choose that discovered the certification course of beneath the card-check regulation as “doubtless unconstitutional” was outmoded in October by an appellate court docket, which remains to be reviewing the case.
Ana Padilla, government director of the UC Merced Group and Labor Middle, stated the Central Valley has been blanketed with anti-union messaging ever because the passage of the card-check regulation.
She additionally questioned the timing of shutting down the Wasco nursery. “Layoffs, retailer closures and offloading organized worksites are all a part of the anti-unionism playbook,” she stated.
This text is a part of The Instances’ fairness reporting initiative, funded by the James Irvine Basis, exploring the challenges dealing with low-income staff and the efforts being made to handle California’s financial divide.
