The allegations ricocheted through the agricultural fields and into a Central Valley courthouse, where one of California’s most powerful companies and an iconic union were trading charges of deception and coercion in a fight over worker representation.
Some farmworkers at Wonderful Nurseries — part of the Wonderful Company, the conglomerate behind famous brands of pomegranate juice and pistachios, as well as Fiji Water — said they had been duped into signing cards to join a union. On the other side, the United Farm Workers, the union formed in the 1960s by labor figures including Cesar Chavez, contends that the influential company, owned by the Los Angeles billionaires and powerhouse Democratic donors Stewart and Lynda Resnick, is trying to thwart the will of workers through intimidation and coercion.
For months, the back and forth has played out before the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board, which arbitrates labor fights between workers and growers, and in a courthouse not far from Wonderful’s sprawling fields.
In May, the company filed a legal challenge against the state that could overturn a 2022 law that made it easier for farmworkers to take part in unionization votes.
After vetoing a previous version over procedural concerns, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the measure following public pressure from President Biden and Representative Nancy Pelosi, then the House speaker. The U.F.W. heralded the bill’s enactment as a critical victory, but several big growers said that it would allow union organizers to unfairly influence the process.
The law paved the way for farmworkers to vote for union representation by signing union authorization cards, a process known simply as card check. Its passage coincided with an era of greater mobilization to unionize workers during the pandemic and a willingness to press demands for better working conditions and respect from employers, said Victor Narro, project director and labor studies professor at the U.C.L.A. Labor Center.
“There is new energy in the fight for a voice in the workplace, which is why there has been a wave of union organizing campaigns since the pandemic,” Mr. Narro said.
Last fall, the U.F.W. secured its first organizing success in six years, unionizing nearly 300 workers at a tomato packing plant in the Central Valley using the card check system.
The union now represents around 7,000 workers, compared with 60,000 in the 1970s. That substantial contraction has been attributed to a variety of factors: strife and attrition within the union’s early nucleus, disillusionment among members, pushback from growers, strategic missteps, and an insufficient emphasis on organizing.
In recent months, the union has focused its organizing and legal efforts on the battle against Wonderful Nurseries, whose owners, the Resnicks, have donated millions to Democratic politicians and philanthropic ventures that have landed their names on facilities at U.C.L.A., the Hammer Museum and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
The U.F.W. filed a petition with the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board in February attesting that most of the more than 600 farmworkers at Wonderful Nurseries in the small Central Valley city of Wasco had signed union authorization cards.
But Wonderful quickly pushed back, filing a motion asking the board to halt the process of certifying the workers’ signatures.
The company provided signed declarations from roughly 150 workers claiming that the U.F.W. had made them think that signing the cards was a prerequisite to receive $600 in federal relief funds for farmworkers.
Some said that union workers had “stalked” them and “tricked” them into signing, according to transcripts.
The labor relations board allowed the certification process to move forward. A regional director of the board acknowledged in a hearing of the panel that it had not addressed the concerns outlined in the declarations, according to transcripts.
Elizabeth Strater, director of strategic campaigns for the U.F.W., said the effort to organize at Wonderful is about ensuring fundamental respect and fairness for both subcontracted and direct employees.
“These workers wanted to have a voice on the job where their work is building enormous profits for the company, and they have the right to come together and form their union,” Ms. Strater said.
But some workers who initially signed cards later gathered for an April protest to publicly distance themselves from the unionization effort. They chanted and carried signs that read “No queremos unión!” — “We do not want union!”
“They said clearly — this I do remember — that it was $600 of aid for farmworkers who worked during Covid,” Claudia Chavez, an employee of a labor contractor for Wonderful, told The Los Angeles Times. She said she had not known she was voting for the union.
The U.F.W. filed a complaint with the labor relations board claiming unfair labor practices by Wonderful, arguing that it had used union-busting tactics to coerce workers into filing the declarations.
According to the complaint, workers were pressured by human resources managers and a consultant to assert that they had been misled and did not want to be a part of the union. Inside a conference room and a greenhouse, according to the complaint, the managers and the consultant spoke with workers in Spanish, intimidating and persuading them to revoke their signatures from the cards.
The labor relations board’s general counsel sided with the union and ordered the company to “cease and desist from interrogating agricultural employees regarding their union support.” In response to the ruling, the company said the board “shows once again they are more interested in shamelessly backing the U.F.W. than protecting farmworkers or safeguarding the integrity of a union vote.”
In May, Wonderful sued the board, arguing that the state law allowing unionization through card check deprives employers of due process. The lawsuit came toward the end of a 90-day window for the company and the union to reach a collective bargaining agreement or have one prescribed by the board.
During a June hearing for the lawsuit, dozens of U.F.W. members marched outside the courthouse. Using megaphones and donning bright red T-shirts emblazoned with the union symbol — the Aztec eagle — they castigated Wonderful as a dishonest company that did not care about workers.
Last month, the judge overseeing the case issued a preliminary injunction that halted the bargaining process.
A final ruling is pending, but the judge indicated that Wonderful was “likely to prevail” on its challenge to the 2022 law, adding that compliance “with a process that is likely unconstitutional” would cause irreparable harm.
In a statement, Rob Yraceburu, president of Wonderful Nurseries, said the “company’s history of working with agricultural workers is rooted in mutual trust, collaboration and respect.” (Some company subsidiaries are unionized or have been in the past.)
He said that after hearing from farmworkers that they had “felt misled” into signing the union authorization cards, “we answered these employee questions with full transparency and honesty.”
The company said the Resnicks had declined to comment on the dispute.
Teresa Romero, president of the U.F.W., released a public letter to supporters after the preliminary injunction was granted.
“It’s very clear Wonderful is determined to use its considerable resources to deny farmworkers their rights,” she said. “This is a heavy blow, but these workers are courageous and determined to seek what they deserve: dignity at work and a fair union contract.”