Definitive Report - Report No 123, 1971

Case No 639 (United States of America) - Complaint date: 05-AUG-70 - Closed

1. 8. The complaint by the World Confederation of Labour is contained in a communication dated 5 August 1970 addressed direct to the ILO. The complaint was transmitted to the Government, which sent its observations in a communication dated 7 January 1971.
2. 9. The United States has not ratified the Right of Association (Agriculture) Convention, 1921 (No. 11), the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87), or the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98).

A. A. The complainants' allegations

1. 10. The complainants state that the United Farm Workers, which is an association grouping the agricultural labour of the state of California, informed them that a large number of farm workers engaged in the cultivation and harvesting of California grapes had been on strike for four years, adding that this strike " has been legally registered with the Federal Department of Labor ".
2. 11. The complainants allege that the reason for this strike is that the farm workers in the United States are excluded from the National Labor Relations Act, which grants industrial workers " the right to elect their representatives and to be recognised for the purposes of collective bargaining ". This law, which does not cover agricultural workers, provides that workers shall have the right to choose the union which is to represent them for the purposes of collective bargaining and that this union, once certified as the bargaining agent of the workers concerned, shall be recognised by the employer.
3. 12. According to the complainants, the owners of the vineyards relied on the fact that this Act does not apply to agricultural workers in refusing systematically to recognise the agricultural workers' trade union organisation and have rejected any proposal for talks with the workers' representatives.
4. 13. The complainants allege that the workers in question wanted " to have a contract that will guarantee minimum occupational health conditions, and regulations to control the unrestricted use of pesticides involving exposure to incurable diseases, and to receive decent wages for a proper livelihood and stable and safe employment ".
5. 14. In its observations the Government states that the strike mentioned by the complainants has ended and that the dispute has been settled. It reports that the United Farm Workers has signed agreements with over thirty owners of vineyards.

The Committee's recommendations

1. 15. In these circumstances, since the dispute mentioned in the complaint appears no longer to exist, the Committee, considering that it would be pointless for it to pursue the matter, recommends the Governing Body to decide that the case calls for no further examination on its part.