U.S. Supreme Court cuts off union organizer's access to farm workers

Washington, June 24 (RHC)-- In what is being seen as a major defeat for organized labor, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6 to 3 that a California labor law violated the constitutional rights of property owners by giving union organizers access to workers on privately owned farms during their work breaks. 

The ruling strikes down a crucial part of a landmark 1975 labor law that was the nation’s first to recognize agricultural workers’ rights to collective bargaining.  Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority, “The access regulation grants labor organizations a right to invade the growers’ property.”

It’s a devastating blow to the United Farm Workers.  In a statement, the union said: “The Supreme Court ruling makes a racist and broken farm Labor system even more unequal for farm workers.  This decision denies workers the right to use breaks to freely discuss whether they want to have a union.”