Federal court delivers victory for North Carolina farmworkers

A federal court blocked a North Carolina law Thursday that guts the ability of farmworkers to organize and make collective bargaining agreements with their employers from going into effect as a legal challenge proceeds.

The court found that the North Carolina Farm Act of 2017 likely violates farmworkers’ Fourteenth Amendment right to equal protection, according to a news release from the ACLU of North Carolina.

The federal lawsuit was brought on behalf of the only farmworkers’ union in the state — the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC)– and two individual farmworkers. It was filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), the ACLU, the North Carolina Justice Center, and the Law Offices of Robert J. Willis. The N.C. Justice Center is the parent organization of NC Policy Watch.

“North Carolina’s law is clearly designed to make it harder, if not impossible, for the state’s only farmworkers union to advocate for sorely needed protections against exploitation and bad working conditions,” said Brian Hauss, a staff attorney at the ACLU. “We’re glad the court has blocked the legislature’s attempt to violate farmworkers’ constitutional and civil rights, and we’ll keep fighting for the ability of those workers to organize and advocate for better working conditions.”

Read more: http://pulse.ncpolicywatch.org/2018/09/21/federal-court-delivers-victory-for-nc-farmworkers/