A billion dollar farming company is battling California farmworker union over major victory

The United Farm Workers is facing allegations of fraudulent conduct from one of the largest agricultural companies in the world, days after the historic union successfully organized a small part of the multibillion-dollar business.

In a first for the labor union, UFW was certified for organizing 640 California workers at Wonderful Nurseries — North America’s largest grapevine nursery. The organizing victory is UFW’s largest and third successful election petition in California under a controversial new law allowing farmworkers to provide their union vote via “card check,” a method to lessen retaliation from employers.

The Wonderful Nurseries certification is a step toward UFW reclaiming a piece of its heyday, labor experts say. The grapevine nursery is a part of the Wonderful Company empire, a Los Angeles-based private enterprise, which includes Wonderful Pistachios, Fiji Water, Halos mandarins and flower delivery service Teleflora.

“Wonderful is a giant among agricultural employers similar to a Walmart or McDonald’s in retail or fast food,” said Ana Padilla, executive director of the UC Merced Community and Labor Center.

But a major headache now looms for UFW, with Wonderful Nurseries contesting the election results and contending it has hundreds of workers on its side. The nursery company alleges UFW organizers misled almost half of the farmworkers who signed union authorization cards and claims the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board should have never certified the election.

“We place the highest priority on the protection of farmworkers, which is why the UFW should be held fully accountable for their wholesale exploitation of workers in this process and why the Agricultural Labor Relations Board should never have certified the vote given all the allegations of fraud they knew about,” said Rob Yraceburu, president of Wonderful Nurseries, in an emailed statement.

UFW maintains the Wonderful Nurseries’ allegations are “categorically false,” and no signatures were collected under false pretenses. On Thursday, the UFW filed charges with the ALRB that Wonderful Nurseries has coerced workers into making false statements.

The union declined to respond to the specifics of the Wonderful allegations.

“It would be a great disservice to our lawyers if we presented the facts to The Sacramento Bee before the ALRB,” said Antonio De Loera-Brust, a UFW spokesperson.

A hearing on the dispute will likely be scheduled before March 25. A decision on the hearing could take months.

For now, Wonderful Nurseries employees are at odds on how UFW conducted itself. About 51% of workers signed cards for union representation, according to an Agricultural Labor Relations Board filing.

Some workers say the labor union leveraged a federal grant program to gain their trust and eventual signatures. Others say UFW was completely truthful during its organizing campaign and the anti-union backlash coming from workers stems from a fear of employer retaliation and the potential of losing their jobs.

How did UFW get workers to sign union cards?

The dispute centers around UFW’s work to help farmworkers receive one-time $600 relief payments through the U.S. Department of Agriculture Farm and Food Worker Relief Grant Program.

The program, which began in March 2023, provided 14 nonprofit organizations with roughly $670 million to issue the relief payments. Some of these nonprofits chose to partner with other organizations to reach more workers.

UFW was authorized through the UFW Foundation, a separate nonprofit that advocates for farmworker issues, to inform and process applications for workers in Arizona, California and Washington.

Wonderful Nurseries alleges UFW used this money to entice employees to attend meetings and eventually secure their union signatures on cards. The company has allegedly submitted 148 written declarations from employees who signed union authorization cards, feel misled and now want their votes revoked, according to a filing by the Agricultural Labor Relations Board.

Wonderful Nurseries says these declarations were collected after employees approached the company on how to revoke their votes.

“We engaged people to assist employees in understanding their rights and prepare their legal declarations,” Yraceburu said in a statement.

The Sacramento Bee reviewed nearly all the declarations with employee names redacted. The majority cite a similar narrative that occurred between March 2023 and February 2024, with unnamed employees saying they were persuaded by coworkers or union organizers to attend a meeting to learn about a one-time $600 relief payment.

From there, the stories slightly differ, with most employees saying they were informed about the federal program and the union and then signed cards or papers to receive the $600 but not to join a union. Some allege UFW rushed them to sign documents or pretended to work for Wonderful Nurseries. And a few say they never provided their signature to any document.

UFW denies it gathered signatures on its union cards by misleading workers. The union also maintains that all the cards have clear language explaining that workers are signing to make UFW their union bargaining representative.

When asked if the union persuaded workers to attend meetings to learn about the federal grant program or if the union spoke about the program and unionizing on the same days, De Loera-Brust did not comment and pointed to the upcoming hearing.

“We have those facts and we will present them through the appropriate process,” he said.

Workers experiences with organizers

Four Wonderful Nurseries workers spoke to The Bee to provide their experiences with UFW organizers.

Three workers, who now want their vote revoked, say they merely attended meetings and signed cards for the $600 relief payments and never wanted to join a union. They described feeling “tricked” and “lied to” by UFW organizers, while also pointing to the 3% dues that would be required by joining. They also struggled to recall specifics of when they met up with UFW organizers and if the cards they signed contained wording to make UFW their union bargaining representative.

Edenilson Alas, a 26-year-old Salvadoran, said he could not recall when he provided his signature on a union card, or if it contained any explicit language, but said he attended a meeting about the federal grant program at a church in Delano. He later received his $600.

But Alas says a union was never discussed at this meeting. He is not necessarily against the union, but he said the main issue was the “trickery” used to obtain his signature.

“If I was told what I was signing to be part of this then, I would have never taken the $600,” Alas said.

Alas and the two other workers said they obtained a Bee reporter’s phone number through their supervisor. Each one said they reached out voluntarily. During a phone interview, one woman was overheard asking a person near her how to respond to at least two questions.

A fourth worker, who was connected to The Bee through UFW, pushed back against her coworkers’ claims of trickery and fraud.

The middle-aged woman, who asked The Bee not to use her name due to fear of employer retaliation, said she attended a UFW meeting late last year. She said UFW discussed both the federal grant program and unionizing in the same meeting, but organizers clearly represented themselves and all the language on the cards and other documents were explicit.

“Everything was explained very clearly… and what it meant to bring a union to the company,” she said.

Part of the differences of opinion among workers may stem from the use of third-party labor contractors. Big farming companies, like Wonderful Nurseries, often use contractors to supply them with workers. This system leads to some workers receiving more benefits and higher salaries than others.

“It’s not fair that people hired directly through the company go against the union because they have benefits, they have sick days and they have a medical plan,” the middle-aged worker said.

Wonderful Nurseries staunchly defended its workplace culture.

“They (UFW) seem unaware that Wonderful Nurseries is known for its exemplary culture that sees people return year after year and has an impeccable record of no harassment or discrimination claims,” Yraceburu said in the email statement.

The female worker added that the anti-union rhetoric coming from workers stems from fear being spread by consultants recently hired by the company. The consultants spoke negatively of the union, the need to pay dues and that unsuccessful bargaining can lead to losses of jobs, according to the worker.

“If there’s anyone saying that they were tricked, it’s because they have fear of losing their job,” she said.

UFW said it is also hearing from workers that Wonderful Nurseries is insinuating a union could mean job loss. But the labor union noted employers are often careful to not “cross the legal line.”

“This has had a significant chilling effect, and workers are feeling a lot of pressure and are certainly intimidated by what the company is doing,” De Loera-Brust said.

Wonderful Nurseries denied that workers are facing any pressure from employers or any third-party labor contractors to push back against unionization efforts.

“We have consistently and actively communicated to workers that they have every right to organize if they choose to do so, which stands in complete contrast to the UFW’s efforts to mislead and coerce farmworkers to get votes,” Yraceburu said in the emailed statement.

Victor Narro, project director for the UCLA Labor Center and a national expert on immigrant rights, could not speak to the specifics of organizing at Wonderful Nurseries but said the company’s argument is a common one. He said across industries employers will try to delegitimize union elections by saying workers were coerced or misled into signing.

“But the process itself will determine whether those claims are true,” Narro said.