Union push pits the United Farm Workers against a major California agricultural business

In a meeting room at a hotel in California’s crop-rich Central Valley, a fight is taking place that could help shape the future of farm labor in fields that grow a chunk of the country’s food.

The battle between a unit of the Wonderful Co. — one of the state’s most well-known farm companies that grows pistachios, pomegranates and citrus — and United Farm Workers — the country’s biggest farm worker union — comes after California passed a law in 2022 aimed at making it easier for agricultural laborers to organize.

Several hundred workers filed papers this year to unionize at Wonderful Nurseries in Wasco, Calif., a move the company claimed was fraudulent. The allegations are being heard in proceedings that could uphold the newly-formed union or revoke its certification. Meanwhile, farmer and labor advocates are watching closely to determine what impact the new law is having in a state where most farmworkers are not organized.

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