For the union, the case is an existential threat. Farmworkers in California are seasonal, typically working for several employers during the course of the year. They arrive in town in time for the local harvest, live in motels, labor camps or with friends or relatives, then move on when the crop is picked. In practice that means organizers can gather signatures for a union election only during the relatively short harvest time at a particular site.
Because of these and other farm-specific conditions, under California’s labor regulations, union organizers are permitted to meet with workers an hour before and after work and at lunchtime — all on the grower’s property — for limited periods during the year. Specifically, organizers are permitted on site during those specified hours, for 30 days, four times a year.
Fahner contends that California’s agricultural labor law is a relic of the past.
“This law, in today’s world, is no longer necessary. With social media — Facebook, Snapchat, WhatsApp — you can communicate with people around the world, effectively without having to have access to a person’s private property and place of business,” he says.
The union’s Martinez calls that argument “nonsense,” noting that most in the migrant workforce are undocumented, indigenous people who don’t speak English, have little education and don’t have modern smartphones with access to the internet or Wi-Fi.