By Patrick Bray | Arizona Farm & Ranch Group
Arizona’s agricultural industry is a $23 billion dollar industry that is fueled by thousands of workers across the state. Finding and sustaining a reliable workforce is of vital importance to the farming and ranching communities we serve, and that requires a system where workers are treated fairly, and employers are as well.
The Arizona Farm and Ranch Group works every day on the large issues facing our members, including water rights, sustainability, land issues, and delivering food to the table safely and reliably. But we also pay close attention to how Congress is working to ensure that any labor issues are dealt with in a fair and objective way.
That’s one reason I am deeply concerned about multiple efforts to tinker with our nation’s laws regarding independent contractors. Union lobbyists have been pushing politicians in Washington and in state capitals across the country to classify more workers as employees, which would deprive them of many of the career growth opportunities available to them. It would also (no surprise) make it much easier for labor bosses to unionize them.
The issue will almost certainly come before the National Labor Relations Board in the next year. The NLRB is the federal agency empaneled under the National Labor Relations Act to enforce our labor laws and oversee union elections. Throughout the decades since its founding, the NLRB has served as a neutral arbitrator between employers and big labor. Unfortunately, under the administration of President Joe Biden, the NLRB has morphed into a pro-union activist agency attempting to change laws through regulatory fiat rather than legislative action.
The controversy is coming to a head right now because Biden has renominated former labor attorney Gwynne Wilcox to serve another term on the NLRB. Contrary to NLRB’s traditionally neutral ethos, Wilcox is a progressive activist who is trying to ram through a pro-union agenda. She has already represented unions before the board as an attorney, which draws into question her ability to be unbiased and her respect for common sense conflict of interest restrictions. For example, despite 16 U.S. Senators jointly calling for Wilcox to recuse herself from a case that would make it easier for unions to organize franchise businesses because she had previously represented a union on a similar case, she has so far refused to do so.
Wilcox has already voted to reclassify some independent contractors as employees under the NLRB’s Atlanta Opera decision. In that case, the NLRB ruled that hairdressers and makeup artists were employees, rather than ICs. The decision limits these workers’ ability to make money and grow their personal businesses elsewhere. Who’s to say what industry would be targeted next?
Senator Kyrsten Sinema has a unique say in Wilcox’s nomination. The Senator recently came out in opposition to another Labor nominee cut from the same cloth (Julie Su) and was applauded by the Arizona business communities for it. She has a similar opportunity here. Senator Sinema has carved out a remarkable reputation as a fair-minded independent voice in Washington. She would do Arizona workers a service if she rejected Wilcox.
Patrick Bray is the Executive Vice President of Arizona Farm and Ranch Group. He is a former Goodyear council member.
