California's Labor Code Provides For A Mandatory Mediation And Conciliation (MMC) Process To Promote The Collective Bargaining Process In Agricultural Labor Relations.
When collective bargaining between the United Farm Workers Union and Gerawan Farming, Inc. reached an impasse, the UFW requested, and the California's Agricultural Labor Relations Board ordered the parties to mandatory mediation and conciliation under the MMC statutory scheme. "On-the-record" mediation sessions, meaning sessions in which witness testimony was transcribed by a court reporter, were held, and a Gerawan employee, Garcia, sought access to the sessions. The mediator denied the request, and the Board upheld the denial, holding the public does not have a constitutional right to attend MMC hearings. The superior court granted summary judgment in favor of the Board. Garcia and Gerawan separately appealed from the resulting judgment in the Board's favor on their complaints. Gerawan Farming, Inc., Plaintiff and Appellant, v. Agricultural Labor Relations Board, Defendant and Respondent; Lupe Garcia, Intervener and Appellant, F076148, F076150 (5th Dist. 9/24/19) (DeSantos, Franson, Pena).
The issue presented on appeal is "whether there is a public right of access to on-the-record MMC proceedings under the federal and state Constitutions, and whether Gerawan has standing to challenge the Board's decision." The Court of Appeal held that Gerawan lacked standing, and went on to analyze Garcia's argument that Garcia had a "presumed right of access" to the mediation sessions. The Court emphasized that the sessions were not "ordinary civil trials", and that whether a right of access existed would be analyzed with a two-prong test that looks at: (1) experience; and (2) logic. Applying the two-prong test, the Court held:
"In sum, given that on-the-record MMC proceedings are part of the collective bargaining process, the benefits of open MMC proceedings are far less than the benefits of open criminal or ordinary civil proceedings. This finding, coupled with the absence of a showing of a historical tradition of public access, leads us to conclude there is no constitutional right of public access to on-the-record MMC proceedings."
The judgment is affirmed.
On May 15, 2016, we blogged about another aspect of the Gerawan/UFW labor dispute, in which the Fifth District held that California Labor Code section 1164.9, which limited judicial review of the California Agricultural Labor Board's action on a collective bargaining agreement, after MMC, was unconstitutional.
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