Here’s a small, but important, ray of sunshine to brighten a conservative’s day. Yesterday, the Fresno Bee reported that Governor Jerry Brown had appointed the Agricultural Labor Relations Board chief counsel, Sylvia Torres-Guillen, to become a “special counsel” on his staff. Unreported by the Bee, but well reported by the American Media Institue’s Michael Waller, was the fact the Torres-Guillen and her staff had likely been improperly favoring the United Farm Workers Union in an ongoing dispute with workers at the Gerawan farms over whether to decertify the UFW.
The workers argued that the UFW had abandoned them for decades and they had been left to negotiate on their own, which resulted them in receiving better pay and benefits than many UFW-represented workers. When the union, beset for years by declining membership, tried to reassert their role, workers held a decertification election to kick the union out.
Nearly three years later, those ballots remain uncounted subject to UFW efforts to have the ballots destroyed (they alleged the election had been tainted by employer misbehavior). The ALRB had been on the verge of a final decision over whether to count or destroy these ballots when the governor’s appointment — arriving just a day after Mr. Waller’s column appeared — effectively removed Ms. Torres-Guillen from the case.
A coincidence? A case of “promotion upstairs”? No one can know for sure, but the Bee reported that she had been feuding with the recent Brown-appointed ALRB chairman, who is thought to be less union-friendly.
Conservatives rightly stand behind courageous people who fight against all odds for their right to live free lives. In a week littered with disappointments, it’s good to see that sometimes Mr. or Ms. Smith can go to Washington or Sacramento — and win.