State Issued Labor Contracts

An interesting case out of California may eventually be another stage in the Supreme Court repealing labor law that helps workers. In 2002, California passed a law to help farmworkers attempting to negotiate a contract with recalcitrant farmers. If the workers have a union and want a contract but the employers refuses to agree, the state can impose a contract upon the employers after the mediation process winds up. One of the big fruit conglomerates has sued to repeal the law. The California Supreme Court ruled 9-0 in favor of the law. But that hardly matters as the company will appeal this to the Supreme Court. I don’t have a sense of whether the Court will take the case, but if they do, it seems almost certain to be overruled by a 5-4 margin by Roberts and his New Gilded Age cronies. Whether Gorsuch tells public jokes about farmworkers getting killed by pesticide poisoning remains to be seen.