NELP and Allies File Supreme Court Amicus Brief to Defend Labor Organizers’ Access to Worksites

Washington, DC—The National Employment Law Project and 13 partner organizations today filed an amicus brief in a Supreme Court case that will decide whether employers can exclude non-employee labor representatives from worksites under longstanding California Agricultural Labor Relations Board rules that permit union organizers to seek permission to visit workers during their lunch hours or before or after their shifts.

The groups called on the U.S. Supreme Court to reject the employers’ and their amici’s broader, ideologically driven challenge to the rules, which could open the door to future legal challenges to a wide swath of New Deal and civil-rights-era protections.

“Our brief shows the potential dangers if the employers’ challenge succeeds,” said Cathy Ruckelshaus, general counsel at the National Employment Law Project. “An adverse decision could potentially jeopardize the ability of government regulators and third-party experts to access jobsites to investigate and enforce critical safety and health, fair pay, and civil rights protections.”

Workers in agriculture and food production, warehouses, poultry and meatpacking, hospitals and nursing homes, construction, security and janitorial, landscaping, retail, mining and extraction, restaurants, and hotels—who are primarily Black and female—are at risk of losing workplace protections if employers are allowed to deny public and private inspections at jobsites.

The amicus brief was signed by 14 worker rights, civil and human rights, and health and safety organizations, including the National Women’s Law Center, LatinoJustice PRLDEF, Public Justice, National Council for Occupational Safety and Health, WorkSafe, Food Chain Workers Alliance, Justice for Migrant Women, National Council of Jewish Women, Inc., Heartland Center for Jobs and Freedom, Economic Policy Institute, National Employment Lawyers’ Association, National Center for Law and Economic Justice, Justice at Work, and NELP.

The case is Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid.

READ THE AMICUS BRIEF HERE:
https://www.nelp.org/wp-content/uploads/Amicus-Brief-Cedar-Point-2021.pdf