California Code of Regulations › Title 8 - Industrial Relations › Division 2 - Agricultural Labor Relations Board › Chapter 9 - Solicitation by Non-Employee Organizers › Section 20900 - Solicitation by Non-Employee Organizers

Current through Register 2024 Notice Reg. No. 28, July 12, 2024
Labor Code Section
				  1140.2 declares
				  it to be the policy of the State of California to encourage and protect the
				  right of agricultural employees to full freedom of association,
				  self-organization, and designation of representatives of their own
				  choosing.
(a) Agricultural employees
				have the right under Labor Code Section
				1152 to
				self-organization, to form, join, or assist labor organizations, to bargain
				collectively through representatives of their own choosing, and to engage in
				other concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other
				mutual aid or protection, as well as the right to refrain from any or all of
				such activities except to the extent that such right may be affected by a
				lawful agreement requiring membership in a labor organization as a condition of
				continued employment. Labor Code Section
				1153(a)
				makes it an unfair labor practice for an agricultural employer to interfere
				with, restrain, or coerce agricultural employees in the exercise of these
				rights.
(b) The United States
				Supreme Court has found that organizational rights are not viable in a vacuum.
				Their effectiveness depends in some measure on the ability of employees to
				learn the advantages and disadvantages of organization from others. When
				alternative channels of effective communication are not available to a union,
				organizational rights must include a limited right to approach employees on the
				property of the employer. Under such circumstances, both statutory and
				constitutional principles require that a reasonable and just accommodation be
				made between the right of unions to access and the legitimate property and
				business interests of the employer.
(c) Generally, unions seeking to organize
				agricultural employees do not have available alternative channels of effective
				communication. Alternative channels of effective communication which have been
				found adequate in industrial settings do not exist or are insufficient in the
				context of agricultural labor.
(d)
				The legislatively declared purpose of bringing certainty and a sense of fair
				play to a presently unstable and potentially volatile condition in the
				agricultural fields of California can best be served by the adoption of rules
				on access which provide clarity and predictability to all parties. Relegation
				of the issues to case-by-case adjudication or the adoption of an overly general
				rule would cause further uncertainty and instability and create delay in the
				final determination of elections.
(e) Accordingly the Board will consider the
				rights of employees under Labor Code Section
				1152 to include
				the right of access by union organizers to the premises of an agricultural
				employer for the purpose of meeting and talking with employees and soliciting
				their support, subject to the following regulations:
(1) When Available.
(A) Access under this section onto an
				agricultural employer's property shall be available to any one labor
				organization for no more than four (4) thirty-day periods in any calendar
				year.
(B) Each thirty-day period
				shall commence when the labor organization files in the appropriate regional
				office two (2) copies of a written notice of intention to take access onto the
				described property of an agricultural employer, together with proof of service
				of a copy of the written notice upon the employer in the manner set forth in
				Section 20300(f).
If a petition for election is filed, the right of access
				  shall continue until after the election as provided by Section
				  20900(e)(1)(C). If
				  a run-off or rerun election is directed, the right of access shall continue
				  until after said election as provided in Section
				  20900(e)(1)(C).
(C) The right to take access under
				this section terminates as to any labor organization after the fifth day
				following completion of the ballot count pursuant to Section
				20360(a) in an
				election conducted under Chapter 5 of the Act, except that where objections to
				the election are filed pursuant to Labor Code Section
				1156.3(c),
				the right of access shall continue for ten days following service of and the
				filing of such objections. The right to take access under this Section
				recommences 30 days prior to the expiration of the bars to the direction of an
				election set forth in Labor Code Sections
				1156.5 and
				1156.6, and
				13 months prior
				to the expiration of a valid collective bargaining agreement that would
				otherwise bar the holding of an election but for the provisions of Labor Code
				Section
				1156.7(d).
				Where the right to take access is recommenced during the pendency of a valid
				collective-bargaining agreement pursuant to this paragraph, no more than four
				thirty-day periods of access shall be permitted to any one labor organization
				in the 13 months preceding the expiration of said collective bargaining
				agreement.
Nothing herein shall be interpreted or applied to restrict or
				  diminish whatever rights of access may accrue to a labor organization certified
				  as a bargaining representative.