Farmworkers union settles suit

The United Farm Workers union settled a long-running lawsuit with its former field organizers, agreeing to pay $1.3 million in back wages, penalties and attorney fees.

Ana Toledo, a Salinas, Calif., attorney for former UFW organizer Francisco Cerritos, said a tentative agreement, worked out last week, will be submitted to a judge Oct. 11 and finalized after a Dec. 1 hearing.

The union had faced $1.8 million in costs related to the case — nearly half what it collects in dues from 9,830 members, according to U.S. Department of Labor records.

“The high costs and risks of a lengthy appeal led the union to conclude that settling the case for an amount less than what the judge ordered is in the best interest of its members,” UFW spokesman Armando Elenes said.

Plaintiff Francisco Cerritos was fired from the UFW in 2013, shortly after organizing a UFW employee union, La Union Es Para Todos (The Union Is for Everyone). UFW cited several disciplinary actions in the firing.

Cerritos filed the suit a year later, saying he was misclassified as exempt from certain wage and hourly rules and was owed back wages, according to court records.

The suit alleged that the UFW regularly required Cerritos and 23 other organizers to work more than eight hours a day and 40 hours per week, did not provide meal periods after five hours of work and regularly issued pay stubs that did not specify the hours worked.

Monterey County Superior Court Judge Thomas W. Wills, who ruled in Cerritos’ favor in March, had ordered the union to pay $885,000 in back pay and $235,000 in penalties, plus legal expenses.

Wills ordered the garnishment of UFW dues from unionized workers at four companies to begin paying the costs. The union appealed the decision. Any appeal would be withdrawn if the judge accepts the settlement.