Oxnard, Calif. (March 23, 2004) — Employees of PictSweet Mushroom Farms today filed class-action charges with the California Agriculture Labor Relations Board (ALRB) against officials from the United Farm Workers (UFW) union for misrepresenting their rights, unlawfully collecting full union dues from their paychecks, and threatening dissenting workers with loss of benefits.

Obtaining free legal aid from National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation attorneys, Guillermo Virgen and Gerardo Mendoza filed the class-action unfair labor practice charges on behalf of roughly 300 workers at the PictSweet plant in Ventura. Foundation attorneys are seeking full remedies for their clients and all employees similarly situated. The ALRB will investigate the charges and decide whether to prosecute the union hierarchy.

The charges come on the heels of the ALRB’s filing of a complaint in December 2003 against the UFW union for unlawfully ordering the mass firings of more than 150 Oxnard-area Coastal Berry employees who refused to pay full union dues in 2000.

“The UFW union hierarchy wants workers simply to shut up and pay up,” said National Right to Work Foundation Vice President Stefan Gleason. “This union hierarchy’s repeated refusal to respect workers’ freedom shows a clear disdain for the people that they claim to represent and for the rule of law.”

Virgen and Mendoza allege that UFW union officials intentionally misled workers by stating that all workers in the bargaining unit were required to pay full union dues as a condition of employment. UFW union officials also unlawfully failed to inform employees of their rights to object to paying for non-collective bargaining activities (such as union electoral politics), and the right to challenge the union’s fee calculations before an impartial decision maker.

Union officials also demanded that workers sign dues check-off cards authorizing the automatic deduction of full union dues from their paychecks in order to keep their jobs. UFW officials then threatened workers with a loss of pension, medical, and other benefits if they failed to pay full dues, and sign payroll deduction authorization cards.

The actions of UFW union officials not only violated the California Agricultural Labor Relations Act, but also unlawfully infringed constitutional rights recognized in several Foundation-won U.S. Supreme Court decisions.

“The actions of the recidivist UFW union hierarchy shows the inevitable greed and corruption that flow from forced unionism,” stated Gleason. “Until California’s workers enjoy the protections of a Right to Work law, its workers will continue to suffer such abuse at the hands of self-serving union officials.”

The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation is a nonprofit, charitable organization providing free legal aid to employees whose human or civil rights have been violated by compulsory unionism abuses. The Foundation, which can be contacted toll-free at 1-800-336-3600, assists thousands of employees in about 200 cases nationwide per year.