UFCW 1776 and FarmSTAND on Pennsylvania's Farm Worker Rights Lawsuit

Wendell Young IV, president of UFCW Local 1776 Keystone State representing 35,000 members across Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York and West Virginia, and Hannah Wolf, senior staff attorney at FarmSTAND, joined the America's Work Force Union Podcast to discuss a constitutional lawsuit filed at the end of September challenging Pennsylvania's exclusion of agricultural workers from the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Act.

The exclusion Young and Wolf discuss dates back to approximately 1937, when Pennsylvania's labor law was modeled after the federal Wagner Act and carried forward the same agricultural worker carve-out. Wolf explained that the lawsuit brings claims under the Pennsylvania State Constitution, arguing the exemption violates equal protection rights, constitutes race and ethnicity discrimination given the disproportionate impact on Hispanic agricultural workers and constitutes an unconstitutional special law. Young described the legislative failures that made litigation necessary, including a specific example of a southeastern Pennsylvania grow-processing facility where workers who tried to organize were abandoned by the Trump-era National Labor Relations Board. The workers were fired and subjected to intimidation by management until the organizing effort collapsed, Young said.

Both guests connected the farm worker rights fight to food system stability, immigration policy and the broader question of who bears the cost when agricultural labor protections remain absent.

• The Pennsylvania Labor Relations Act, enacted approximately 90 years ago and modeled on the federal Wagner Act, excludes agricultural workers from the right to collectively bargain and the protections of Pennsylvania labor law. Young said the original exclusion was rooted in both agricultural industry lobbying and a deliberate effort by Southern legislators to deny collective bargaining rights to the predominantly Black workforce in the fields. The agricultural workforce has changed significantly, with more permanent workers, more year-round operations and a more consolidated corporate agriculture sector. Despite those changes, the exemption has never been addressed by the Pennsylvania legislature.
• FarmSTAND's lawsuit, filed at the end of September, challenges the agricultural worker exemption on three constitutional grounds under the Pennsylvania Constitution. They include violation of equal protection rights, prohibition on race and ethnicity discrimination, given the disproportionate impact on Hispanic agricultural workers and an unconstitutional special law. New York State successfully challenged a similar exemption under its own constitution, which explicitly protects the right to collectively bargain, but Pennsylvania's constitution differs, and the legal theories accordingly differ; Wolf said the government's answer is expected before the end of the year.
• Young shared a recent example of what the absence of protections produces. Workers at a southeastern Pennsylvania grow processing facility contacted UFCW Local 1776 and formed an organizing committee. The Trump-era NLRB's chief counsel refused to handle the case by reversing a prior position on an agricultural exemption question. The employer fired workers involved in the organizing effort, and the remaining workers were subjected to what Young described as management relations waterboarding until they left out of fear. Young linked their fight to food-supply stability, arguing that consistent, protected agricultural labor would reduce supply disruptions and price volatility caused by the administration's immigration policies.

A Union Veteran and a Worker Justice Litigator

Wendell Young IV has been a UFCW member for nearly 50 years, on union staff for more than 40. He leads UFCW Local 1776 Keystone State, which represents 35,000 members across Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York and West Virginia, including retail grocery workers, food processing workers and others throughout the food supply chain. He opened by acknowledging that the Trump administration's policies have cost Local 1776 thousands of members across multiple industries.

Hannah Wolf is a senior staff attorney at FarmSTAND, a litigation group that takes on cases fighting for a more sustainable, equitable and humane food system. FarmSTAND works on behalf of farmers and ranchers fighting policies that benefit corporate agriculture at their expense. A significant portion of its works involves fights for the rights of workers throughout the food chain, particularly meatpacking and agricultural workers, Wolf said.

Big Ag, Consolidation and Who Picks the Food

For context, Wolf described the impact of the consolidation of American animal agriculture. The majority of beef and poultry consumed in the United States comes from a handful of companies. The dispersed network of smaller farms that once characterized the industry has been replaced by a highly concentrated corporate structure, Wolf said. The workers who serve that structure — the people who grow, handle and process the food — operate in an environment where the power imbalance between employer and employee is, at its greatest, among the workers who have the fewest legal protections, Wolf said.

Ninety Years of Exclusion

Young walked through the history of the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Act. Pennsylvania modeled its law on the federal Wagner Act, enacted in the mid-1930s, including its exclusion of agricultural workers. Young described the exclusion as the product of two forces: lobbying by agricultural business interests and a deliberate political compromise to secure votes from Southern legislators who did not want collective bargaining rights extended to the predominantly Black workforce in the fields. He said the first motive was corrupt and the second was racist, and that neither justification has any remaining validity since the current landscape has changed substantially.

Corporate agriculture has consolidated. Grow facilities now operate year-round with a sophisticated, permanent workforce rather than seasonal migrant labor. The workers in those facilities constantly intersect with the unionized workers Young represents — the people who process the food at the other end of the supply chain — but do not share their legal protections. Pennsylvania's legislature, polarized and largely inactive on issues of this kind, has not addressed the exemption despite years of union advocacy.

What Happens Without the Law: A Southeastern Pennsylvania Case Study

Young described a recent example of what the absence of legal protection produces. Workers at a grow processing facility in southeastern Pennsylvania contacted UFCW Local 1776. They formed an organizing committee, and the union filed to enforce its collective bargaining rights. The Trump-era NLRB's chief counsel, reversing a prior position on an agricultural exemption question, refused to handle the case. The employer fired the workers identified as being part of the organizing effort. The remaining workers were subjected to what Young described as sustained intimidation by management. They soon left out of fear, and the organizing effort collapsed.

The pattern Young described is not unusual. It is what happens when workers have no legal backstop. And it is what made litigation the next step, because after years of trying to move the legislature, the union concluded that the constitutional argument was the right tool for the moment.

The Lawsuit

FarmSTAND filed the constitutional challenge at the end of September. The lawsuit argues that the agricultural worker exemption violates Pennsylvania's state constitutional equal protection guarantees, Wold said. Further, it constitutes race and ethnicity discrimination prohibited by the Pennsylvania Constitution, given its disproportionate impact on Hispanic agricultural workers, who make up the majority of Pennsylvania's farm labor force. Finally, it constitutes an unconstitutional special law.

Wolf then discussed the precedent set in New York, where a similar agricultural worker exemption was successfully challenged under its own constitution, which includes an explicit right to collectively bargain. Pennsylvania's constitution does not, so the legal theories differ, Wolf said. The New York victory led to state legislation creating a statutory right to collectively bargain for agricultural workers — legislation that is itself now facing legal challenge. Wolf said litigation is rarely the end of the road, but the courts have proven to be the only available avenue when legislatures will not act.

The next expected step is the government’s answer to the complaint, anticipated before the end of the year.

Immigration Policy, Food Security and the Economic Argument

Young connected the farm worker rights fight to a broader economic argument. The Trump administration's immigration enforcement has made it harder to keep agricultural workers. This includes workers in the fields where food is grown and handled and in the processing facilities where UFCW members work. The resulting instability in labor supply contributes to the food price inflation Americans are experiencing. Stable, legally protected agricultural employment would produce more consistent labor supply, better product quality and more stable prices, Young said. That basic economic logic — more supply, more consistent supply, lower prices — applies regardless of the tariffs and other factors also affecting food costs, Young added. Protecting farm workers, he argued, helps put food on tables at prices working families can afford.

Wolf offered additional context on how the current political climate is affecting worker behavior. Agricultural workers are increasingly unwilling to raise concerns about unsafe conditions or employer violations because they fear that speaking up will result in deportation or other government action against them rather than protection. The government is perceived as a threat, not a resource. That makes the absence of collective bargaining rights even more consequential, Wolf said.

More information on FarmSTAND is available at farmstand.org. More information on UFCW Local 1776 Keystone State is available through their website, ufcw1776.org.

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