David Sterling Esq
---
cf marc grossman ufw
---
jn 2021
after-fresno-ag-companys-scotus-win-where-does-farm-labor-stand
the Supreme Court ruled that labor unions do not have the right to enter farms to organize, striking down a 46 year-old California law. Farm groups and property rights advocates say it was a long time coming; the union says it is a small step backward.
Fresno County-based Fowler Packing was a plaintiff in the case Cedar Point Nursery v. Victoria Hassid, decided on June 23. It was the latest victory for area farmers over the United Farm Workers.
Howard Sagaser, the Fresno-based attorney with Sagaser, Watkins & Weiland PC representing Fowler Packing and Cedar Point Nursery, said it was all about property rights.
“Both private property rights and privacy rights have been under attack. And I think this shows that you have to aggressively defend those rights if you’re going to keep them,” Sagaser said.
the latest ruling follows Gerawan Farms’ 2018 win in its decades-long battle with UFW to decertify the union.
In response to the Supreme Court decision, the Agricultural Labor Relations Board — the state agency in charge of enforcing farmworker rights — will no longer enforce state regulations allowing the union to recruit on work sites.
Despite the decisions, the UFW says it is undeterred.
Farm Advocacy Groups: No Surprise
The Supreme Court victory was no surprise to Ryan Jacobsen, CEO of the Fresno County Farm Bureau. The law finally caught up to what farmers have felt for 40 years.
“The way access is done is now going to change. It’s going to go back to what we thought it should have been all along. It’s going to be off work sites,” Jacobsen said.
Ian LeMay, president of the California Fresh Fruit Association, applauded the ruling.
“For 45 years, California’s farmers have seen their property rights ignored by the Agricultural Labor Relations Board by allowing organizers onto their property. No other industry in the United States, including California, has had to allow union organizers onto their property in a similar manner. We appreciate both Fowler Packing and Cedar Point’s efforts in leading the fight to restore the same property rights that are enjoyed by all other industries in the United States, to California farmers,” LeMay said in a news release.
UFW: A David vs. Goliath Battle
“Progress for farm workers is always slow, and the law is often on the side of growers and employers,” UFW spokeswoman Elizabeth Strater said. “The farm worker movement has always been David and Goliath. We lose this one pebble, but we have more pebbles and we can never lose the slingshot.”
Strater said the ruling does not affect labor agreements already in place. An exact number of union farm workers is not available, especially during the off-season.
“That number fluctuates. As I’m sure you know UFW filings in terms of FTE (full-time equivalent) membership is tallied in December. Considering that’s the nadir season, it’s lower than it would be at peak season,” Strater said.
Sagaser said the union still has many avenues of reaching farmworkers.
“There’s always tremendous means of communication, whether it be by phone, by text or use of the internet. I mean, it’s there’s innumerable ways that you can communicate with somebody in this electronic age,” Sagaser said.
The Changing Relationship
Jacobsen, with Farm Bureau, says the relationship between farmers and labor has been changing for years.
“There’s a lot less direct hires and utilization and more farm labor contractor services. So approximately 70, 80 percent of the industry now relies upon farm labor contractors just because the farm labor contractor is able to provide that year-round type of employment,” Jacobsen said.
Jacobsen expects 2021 to be a tight labor year, because as the pandemic eases, the economy will provide greater employment opportunities.
Fowler Packing, at the seasonal peak, employs 2,000 workers according to Sagaser.
“(Fowler Packing is) paying a very good competitive wage. Fowler also provides a free medical clinic for their employees. And I think that the fact that they’re not union is just simply an indication of that. They’ve treated their employees very well over the years and they value their employees. They’re critical to the operation,” Sagaser said.
Padilla: Disappointed in Ruling
U.S. Senator Alex Padilla, D-California, criticized the ruling.
“I am deeply disappointed by the Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision in Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid. Ignoring decades of precedent and defying common sense, the Supreme Court gutted a California law protecting the right of union representatives to meet with farmworkers where they work. The Court’s reasoning threatens the ability of state and federal governments to adopt necessary regulations that protect workers and prevent discrimination,” Padilla said.
Winning at the Supreme Court
For Sagaser, this was the first case of his taken to the Supreme Court. His firm partnered with the Pacific Legal Foundation.
“It is everybody’s dream as a lawyer to go to the Supreme Court and to go there with a case. It’s a good feeling. But I’m happier for the fact that it’s taken us a long time, but we’ve managed to get what I think was something that was on the wrong course put back on course — the constitutional property rights,” Sagaser said.
The case was argued virtually in March. Joshua Thompson with PLF handled the oral arguments over the telephone.
---
2 24
M. David Stirling (born September 27, 1940) is a Republican politician, lawyer, and author. He served in the California State Assembly representing Los Angeles County from 1976 until 1982. He was also the unsuccessful Republican party nominee for California Attorney General in 1998, losing to Democrat Bill Lockyer.
Early life and education\
Stirling is a native of Morgan City, Louisiana. In 1962, he received his undergraduate degree from Principia College in Elsah, Illinois. He excelled in track and football at Principia and even received offers to try out for the San Diego Chargers and the Chicago Bears of the National Football League. Well known as an excellent writer, in his senior year he was on the Dean's List. He opted against a football career and instead, in 1965, received his law degree from Tulane University in New Orleans.
Assembly terms\
Stirling served in the Assembly from 1976 until 1982 representing the southeast portion of Los Angeles County including Whittier, Hacienda Heights and Diamond Bar. During his tenure, he was primarily focused on criminal justice and issues relating to public safety. In 1982, he stepped down to run for California Attorney General; however, he lost in the primary to George Nicholson who at the time was a special assistant Attorney General.
Post Assembly career\
Stirling began a six-year career as the general counsel for the State Agricultural Labor Relations Board in the Deukmejian Administration. He also spent just over a year as a superior court judge in Sacramento County. After the election of Dan Lungren as Attorney General in 1990, Stirling resigned from the court to become the Chief Deputy Attorney General, the second ranking position in the California Department of Justice. He held the post for eight years.
:{:{Second bid for Attorney General\}:
Stirling made a second bid for Attorney General in 1998. In the primary he faced Mike Capizzi, the Orange County District Attorney. Stirling won 66% of the vote to his opponent's 34%. In the general election, he faced then State Senate President Pro Tem Bill Lockyer. In the general election, Stirling obtained 42% of the vote to Lockyer's 52% of the vote. Stirling's vote count was the highest of any non-incumbent Republican in this statewide election.
Post political career\
Thirty two days after leaving the Attorney General's office, Stirling became the vice president of the Pacific Legal Foundation.
References\
- Join California Page for M. David Stirling
- Sacramento Union article on M. David Stirling[permanent ^dead ^link]
External links\
---
2008 hi cty news
Have you noticed? Each year with the coming of fire season
comes also a slew of guest commentaries and editorials in western newspapers
promoting the idea that the current fire, smoke and destruction are the result
of environmentalists’ lawsuits which have locked up the forests resulting in a
build up of brush and tees that in turn fuel hotter and hotter fires. These
formula pieces then go on to prescribe the solution: muzzle environmentalists’
lawsuits, open up the national forests to more commercial logging and soon the
fire risk will be gone.
It is also interesting to observe who is writing the
articles. It comes as no surprise, for example, when we see an example of this
genre penned by M. David Sterling, vice president of the anti-environmental
Pacific Legal Foundation, appearing in the pages of the Capital Press– an Ag weekly
widely read by rural folk in Idaho, Washington, Oregon and California. But we
also see similar editorials from county commissioners, foresters, extension
agents, retired forestry professors, middle level Farm Bureau officials and
even, occasionally, from FFA and 4H leaders. And these editorials appear in all
sorts of newspapers – including some of the larger dailies as well as the small
local chains and independents.
It appears that the timber industry has no shortage of
volunteers to carry their fire message.
The annual barrage of propaganda
seeking to link wildfire home burnings to environmental lawsuits and reduction
of wildfire risk to commercial logging is, in fact, a PR strategy conceived by
big timber and implemented on an annual basis for more than a decade. The
results are impressive: If a poll were taken today I believe it would find that
most westerners view commercial logging as an effective tool for fire risk
reduction.
It makes no difference that science, experience and
economics does not support that assertion. If one is able to repeat a message
often enough and have that message heard – no matter how wrong headed or untrue
the message is – people will begin to believe it. That is unless there is
someone else out there setting the record straight by providing the public with
solid information targeted to refute the propaganda line.
Unfortunately, each year while the timber industry and its
supporters are exploiting the public attention captured by wildfires, the
environmental community is nowhere to be found! I’m not sure if these folks are
on vacation or just have too much e-mail but they are definitely not present on
the opinion pages giving the lie to timber industry fire risk propaganda or –
better still – taking the offensive by linking logging with the destruction of
homes.
If the hundreds of folks who are paid by the environmental
community to work on “forest issues” were on the ball there is plenty of
ammunition at their disposal to refute timber industry fire propaganda and to
link logging to home destruction. For example, it was clearly demonstrated by
Forest Service researchers as early as the late 1980s that older forests
located next to clearcuts burn hotter than those which are within large blocks
of mature or Old Growth forests. And anyone who has fought forest fire in the
West knows that the tree “plantations” following clearcutting are tinderboxes
which explode in flame or that the “slash” left behind by commercial logging
generally constitutes the most flammable locations within our forests.
Furthermore, as an ex-forest activist I can cite you 10 or more
fires from the Klamath Mountains
which “blew up” into fire storms in clearcuts and logging slash. Some of these
logging-related firestorms destroyed homes. The evidence is out there on the
ground and the fire history has been recorded in some instances by forest residents.
A little investigation would likely uncover more immediate
links between logging and home-destroying wildfire. One of the headlines this
fire season occurred, for example, when wildfire destroyed hundreds of homes in
the Town of Paradisein California’s
Northern Sierra foothills. Paradise is surrounded by
industrial timber lands – most owned by Sierra Pacific Industries – one of the
nation’s largest timber companies. These lands have been clearcut extensively
in recent decades and they are full of logging slash, small trees and brush. I
have not done the investigation but if one of our plethora of California
“forest activists” did, I’ll bet the link between industrial logging and the
loss of those Paradise homes would likely come to light.
Don’t hold your breath waiting on that expose, however. Environmentalists working on western
forest issues spend most of their time reading and commenting on obscure Forest Service documents,
not educating the public about what is going on in the forests. With rare
exceptions, the field of western public opinion on fire and logging is plowed
only by the timber industry and its eager shills. That is the way it has been
for a couple of decades and there is no indication the situation will change
anytime soon.
So, why is commercial logging not an appropriate and
effective tool for fire risk reduction? This, of course, is the crux. But it is
a question which will have to await another day and another post.
---
2008 grn gone wild bk merrill press
Dave Stirling's book makes a strong case that the federal government's confiscatory regulation of private property in the name of protecting so-called endangered plant and wildlife species is another step in trampling our Fifth Amendment guarantees. --Walter E. Williams, Professor of Economics, George Mason University
Dave Stirling's book is a crucial and long-overdue effort to shine a spotlight on this most burdensome of federal statutes, and the extreme green movement that propels it. --Hugh Hewitt, national radio talk show host and Constitutional Law Professor
Mr. Stirling's book calls for balance between preserving the natural world and protecting the living needs of people. The green movement's extreme agenda for preserving plant and wildlife species has not only cost Americans billions of dollars every year, while saving only a handful of species, but continues to enable the deaths of millions of the world's poor people. That agenda has also cost many Americans their lives, jobs, and homes. Finally, a book that does not cater to politcal correctness. --Michael Reagan, national radio program host
About the Author
Dave Stirling is the Vice President of the Pacific Legal Foundation. Mr. Stirling served thee terms in the California State Assembly as well has serving as a Superior Court Judge before becoming Chief Deputy Attorney General at the California Department of Justice.
---
ggl 2 24
[### M. David Stirling
Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › M._David_Stirling](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M._David_Stirling)
M. David Stirling (born September 27, 1940) is a Republican politician, lawyer, and author. He served in the California State Assembly representing Los ...
Early life and education · Post Assembly career · Second bid for Attorney General
[### Dave Stirling
JoinCalifornia
http://www.joincalifornia.com › candidate](http://www.joincalifornia.com/candidate/4577)
Candidate Biography: M. David Stirling Born: September 27, 1940 in New Orleans ... 1999-2011: Vice President, Pacific Legal Foundation. Source: California ...
[### Green Gone Wild: Elevating Nature Above Human Rights
Amazon.com
https://www.amazon.com › Green-Gone-Wild-Elevati...](https://www.amazon.com/Green-Gone-Wild-Elevating-Nature/dp/0936783532)
Dave Stirling is the Vice President of the Pacific Legal Foundation. Mr. Stirling served thee terms in the California State Assembly as well has serving as a ...
Rating: 4.5 · 14 reviews · $5.99 · 30-day returns
[### Blog | Page 726 of 774
Pacific Legal Foundation
https://pacificlegal.org › page](https://pacificlegal.org/page/726/?order=desc)
Dave StirlingPLF Of Counsel PLF's Dave Stirling's opinion piece on the Delta smelt was featured in the Sacramento Bee on June 14th. "The question now arises ...
Missing: david sterling
[### David Sterling, MBA - Medtronic
LinkedIn · David Sterling, MBA
200+ followers](https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-sterling-mba-b346971a)
Fort Myers, Florida, United States · Medtronic
“David is exceptionally knowledgeable about bankruptcy and foreclosure law and procedures. ... This is the Great Pacific Garbage… Liked by David Sterling, MBA.
[### David Sterling, USA
Chambers and Partners
https://chambers.com › lawyer › david-sterling-usa-5:...](https://chambers.com/lawyer/david-sterling-usa-5:275400)
David Sterling is the former Chair of Baker Botts' Litigation Department, having previously served as the head of the firm's Securities and Shareholder ...
[### David D. Sterling | People
Baker Botts
https://www.bakerbotts.com › people › sterling-david-d](https://www.bakerbotts.com/people/s/sterling-david-d)
Lawyer specializing in securities class actions, derivative lawsuits, suits challenging mergers, and in proxy litigation.
[### M. David Stirling # 38707
Attorney Search - The State Bar of California (.gov)
https://apps.calbar.ca.gov › attorney › Licensee › Detail](https://apps.calbar.ca.gov/attorney/Licensee/Detail/38707)
Address: PO Box 1000, Walnut Grove, CA 95690. Phone: Not Available | Fax: 916-776-1673. Email: Not Available | Website: Not Available.
Missing: pacific | Show results with: pacific
[### Books By Sterling, David
Bookwire Books
https://www.bookwire.com › books › author › Books-...](https://www.bookwire.com/books/author/David-Sterling/Books-By?authorId=9740396)
Pacific Wilderness - a book by Sterling, David. Pacific Wilderness ... Featured Books. The 48 Laws of Power - a book by Greene, Robert · The ...
Missing: legal | Show results with: legal
---