Emerging Issues in Agricultural Labor Relations

Labor relations in agriculture have been characterized by ·the absence of formal agreements negotiated by employer and labor representatives. Historically, labor law has assured agriculture a "special and exempt" status, a condition which obviated any legal responsibility for employers to respond to employee demands, making organizing efforts more difficult. The hired· farm work force, dominated by youth working less than three months in agriculture, found self-organization nearly impossible. Despite periodic resurgences of interest in the agricultural labor problem, associated with the periodic "rediscovery" of migrant farm laborers (U.S. Congress, Senate); the extension of minimum wages and, more recently, unemployment insurance to farmworkers (U.S. Congress, House); and the proper role of alien labor in American agriculture (Galarza); agricultural labor relations within a defined legal framework are a product of the mid-1970. The 1975 passage of the Agricultural Labor Relations Act (AI.RA) in California, the state with the largest hired work force, marks a new era in agricultural labor relations