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California's Agricultural Labor Relations Law Overview

Learn about the Agricultural Labor Relations Act in California, protecting farm workers' rights, union activities, and employer responsibilities. Understand the roles of the ALRB, agents, unions, and employers, with a focus on the cannabis industry regulations.

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California's Agricultural Labor Relations Law Overview

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  1. CALIFORNIA’S AGRICULTURAL LABOR RELATIONS LAW Presented by: Eduardo Blanco

  2. AGRICULTURAL LABOR RELATION RELATIONS ACT-THE PURPOSE OF THE ACT • In 1975 the California State Legislature passed the Agricultural Labor Relations Act guaranteeing certain rights to California farm workers. • The statute (California Labor Code, section 1140 et sq) establishes a Board and General Counsel which constitutes the Agricultural Labor Relations Board (hereinafter ALRB) and statutorily creates various regional offices around the State. • The Act states that it is the policy of the State of California to encourage and protect the right of farm workers to act together to help themselves, to engage in union organizational activity and to select their own representatives for the purpose of bargaining with their employer for a contract covering their wages, hours, and working conditions. The law prohibits the employers from interfering with these rights, protects the rights of the worker to be free from restraint or coercion by unions or employers, and it prohibits unions from engaging in certain types of strikes and picketing.

  3. AGRICULTURAL LABOR RELATION RELATIONS ACT-THE PURPOSE OF THE ACT (continued) • Agents of the Board conduct secret ballot elections to determine whether workers wish to be represented and if so, by whom. Also, the Act gives authority to the ALRB to investigate, process and take to trial employers or unions who engage in in actions which the Act describes as “unfair labor practices” (ULP’s) • The act guarantees the rights of employees to engage in, or refrain from, union activities or “concerted activities” such as acting together to help or protect each other in matters related to their employment, including their wages, hours, or working conditions.

  4. WHO IS AN AGRICULTURAL EMPLOYER? • The term agricultural employer includes any person, association or group engaged in agriculture, and any person acting directly or indirectly in the interests of such an employer, or any grower, cooperative grower, harvesting association, hiring association or land management group, as well as any person who owns or leases or manages land for agricultural purposes • An agricultural employer is responsible for the acts of: its supervisors or other persons who have supervisory authority. • Responsibility of employer extends to the acts of any hired Farm Labor Contractor and its supervisors

  5. WHO IS AN AGRICULTURAL EMPLOYEE? • Agricultural employees, as defined in the Act, are those engaged in agriculture or in any functions which a farmer performs as an incident to or in connection with farming operations. This includes office staff.

  6. WHAT IS AN AGRICULTURAL LABOR UNION? • The Act defines a union or labor organization as any organization or group in which employees participate and which has a purpose of dealing with employers about grievances, labor disputes, wages, hours, and working conditions of agricultural employees.

  7. Medicinal and Adult-Use Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act REQUIREMENTS • Medicinal and Adult-Use Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act (“MAUCRSA”) defines cannabis as an agricultural product (Section 26069(a) of the Business and Professions Code (hereinafter B&P)). • MAUCRSA defines cultivation at section 26001(1) B&P, with language consistent with ALRA’s definition of agriculture but includes post-production activity not heretofore considered strictly as agricultural. • MAUCRSA requires cannabis cultivators to attest that they are agricultural employers as defined by the ALRA (B&P section 26051.5(a)(8)). Outside of cultivation, the rest of the cannabis industry would fall under the federal labor law, the National Labor Relations Act (hereinafter NLRA) and the National Labor Relations Board (hereinafter NLRB).

  8. Medicinal and Adult-Use Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act REQUIREMENTS (continued) • Employers, also, are prohibited from dominating or interfering with the formation or administration of any labor union and are also prohibited from contributing financial or other support to a union (Labor Code section 1153 (b)). An employer cannot set-up an “in-house” union. Nor can an employer support of show support for employee efforts to oppose unionization. • MAUCRSA created workplace access for union organizers in a process known as the Labor Peace Agreement (hereinafter LPA). For an LPA to be required, the employer must have employed, at minimum, 20 employees at the workplace during the calendar year. The employer must have obtained an LPA prior to obtaining its annual state license or, if not, then it must attest that it will enter into an LPA within a reasonable time frame after obtaining it’s state license.

  9. Medicinal and Adult-Use Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act REQUIREMENTS (continued) • There are no time, place and manner restrictions placed on the access taking contained within MAUCRSA or the cannabis regulations (Section 26001(x) B&P). The only stated requirement in section 26001(x) is that the employer will provide “…access at reasonable times to areas in which the applicant’s employees work.” • Any cannabis cultivator with less than 20 employees, in the calendar year, would only be exempted from the broader union access taking provided under MAUCRSA. • It appears that an employer must give an LPA to as many unions that request it as MAUCRSA states that an employer must give LPA to “…(A)nybona fide labor organization…” (emphasis added section 26001(x) B&P). • Under the statutory definition of an LPA, the employer must agree to refrain from disrupting the union’s communicating with and organizing and representing the employees (section 26001(x) B&P).

  10. Medicinal and Adult-Use Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act REQUIREMENTS (continued) • Issues that will arise and for which no guidance exists within MAUCRSA are: • What is a Bona Fide Labor Organization? • What constitutes “reasonable times” for access? • What constitutes employer disruption of the union’s communication with employees? • Can the union ask for more terms or place requirements into the LPA other than those expressly required by MAUCRSA? • Can the employer legitimately refuse to sign an agreement that includes language or terms not required by MAUCRSA? • How and in front of whom are such conflicts to be resolved? and; • If more than one union has obtained an LPA from a single employer, what is an appropriate division of available non-work time between the unions for them to access the employees?

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