Swaby

Claimant Gus Swaby, a seasonal farm worker, was denied unemployment benefits by respondent California Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board (Board) and denied a writ of mandate by the trial court. On appeal, Swaby asserts he was available for work under Unemployment Insurance Code section 1253, subdivision (c), and therefore eligible for unemployment benefits.

Facts

Swaby is a lifelong seasonal farm worker, employed from December 1 to June 30 during the four years preceding this action by David Freeman & Company, Inc., a grape grower in the Coachella Valley. Swaby, 75 years old, a union member of the United Farm Workers AFL-CIO (the union), obtained employment with Freeman each year through the union’s hiring hall in the Coachella Valley. Freeman was the only grower in the Coachella Valley with whom the union had a collective bargaining agreement. Swaby is experienced in the pruning, thinning, picking, and packing of grapes, prefers grape work to other types of farm labor, does not follow the crops (preferring instead to work solely for one employer), and lives in the farm labor camp while working. During the period July 1 to November 30 when there is no employment for…