William Dal Porto & Sons, Inc. v. Agricultural Labor Relations Board

By this petition, William Dal Porto & Sons, Inc., seeks statutory review (Lab. Code, § 1160.8) 1 of a decision of the Agricultural Labor Relations Board (ALRB or Board) which found that William Dal Porto & Sons, Inc. (petitioner, Dal Porto or employer), committed unfair labor practices in violation of section 1153, subdivisions (a) and (e) of the Agricultural Labor Relations Act of 1975 (ALRA or Act) (Lab. Code, § 1140 et seq.) by bargaining in bad faith with regard to issues of union security and suc *546 cessorship, and by unilaterally raising the wages of certain employees. We affirm the Board’s finding of bad faith bargaining with respect to issues of union security and the unilateral wage increase. However, we annul the Board’s determination that Dal Porto bargained in bad faith on the issue of successorship. In light of our annulment of a bad-faith determination, we remand to the Board for reconsideration of its imposed remedial order.

Factual and Procedural Background

Dal Porto is a closely held family corporation, engaged in production of various types of agricultural produce on approximately 1,227 acres in San Joaquin County. One-eighth of its land is owned by…

I concur in that portion of the majority opinion annulling the Agricultural Labor Relations Board’s (ALRB or Board) finding on successorship. I must respectfully dissent from the majority conclusion that petitioner bargained in bad faith with real party in interest (UFW or Union) on issues of union security (dues checkoff) and unilateral wage increase. My dissent is predicated upon my perception of the evidence and decided appellate authority.

The administrative law officer (ALO) found that William Dal Porto & Sons, Inc. (Dal Porto) “consistently remained opposed to the [UFW’s] proposals on union security . . . because of what it regarded would be an added unacceptable bookkeeping expense. Yet [Dal Porto] never made clear why this [additional] expense was intolerable to it except for vague references to higher costs and Mrs. Dal Porto’s unwillingness to do more work. [Fn. omitted.] In fact, Nomellini never even attempted to ascertain what additional costs would be involved in the performance of those alleged greater duties, never contacted an outside bookkeeping firm for its estimate, and *563 never presented time estimates the added accounting computations would supposedly…