The constitutional rights of farmworkers and other private sector employees to organize and collectively bargain in the United States

Abstract

In 1935, the Wagner Act was passed, effectively guaranteeing the right of workers to organize, collectively bargain and strike. Given the subsequent rise of organized labor, and the creation of an entire administrative apparatus (the National Labor Relations Board, or NLRB) to enforce these rights, it is commonly assumed that these basic rights are held by every American employee, and form the basic fabric of employee-employer relations in this country. However, this is not entirely the case. A large number of employees do not enjoy the protection of the NLRA, including hundreds of thousands of migrant farmworkers. For these employees, the right to organize, collectively bargain, and strike are left up to the discretion of the state or local governments in question. The poorest members of this group, migrant farmworkers, are granted only limited bargaining rights in a handful of states, most notably California and Arizona. This is despite the fact of their well documented hazardous working conditions (such as picking fruits and vegetables covered with toxic pesticides), and the serf-like conditions in which they live—often shacks with no running water.[...]