Agricultural Labor Relations Act

Agricultural Labor Relations Act - Declares it to be the policy of the United States to eliminate the causes of certain substantial obstructions to the free flow of commerce by encouraging farmers and agricultural employees represented by labor organizations to resolve labor disputes through collective bargaining and to protect the exercise by agricultural workers of the full freedom of association, self-organization, and designation of representatives of their own choosing for the purposes of negotiating the terms and conditions of their employment or other mutual aid or protection.

Provides for the establishment and composition of the Agricultural Labor Relations Board. Provides that the Board shall have exclusive jurisdiction, authority, and responsibility with respect to agricultural employees, agricultural employers, and labor organizations representing or seeking to represent agricultural employees covered by this Act.

Provides that employees shall have the right of self-organization, to form, join, or assist labor organizations, to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing, and to engage in other concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection, and shall also have the right to refrain from any or all of such activities except to the extent that such right may be affected by an agreement requiring membership in a labor organization as a condition of employment.

Declares it to be an unfair labor practice for an employer: (1) to interfere with, restrain, or coerce, employees in the exercise of the rights guaranteed in this Act; (2) to dominate or interfere with the formation or administration of any labor organization or contribute financial or other support to it; (3) to encourage or discourage membership in any labor organization by discrimination in regard to hiring or tenure of employment; (4) to discharge or otherwise discriminate against an employee because he has filed charges or given testimony under this Act; (5) to refuse to bargain collectively with the representatives of his employees; (6) to lockout employees in violation of this Act; and (7) to knowingly employ as an employee any alien who is in the United States in violation of law.

Declares it to be an unfair labor practice for a labor organization: (1) to restrain or coerce employees in the exercise of the rights guaranteed under this Act, or an employer in the exercise of the selection of his representatives for the purposes of collective bargaining or the adjustment of grievances; (2) to cause an employer to discriminate against an employee in violation of this Act; (3) to refuse to bargain collectively with an employer; (4) to cause a strike with the object of forcing or requiring any employer or self-employed person to join any labor or employer organization, to cease using, selling, handling, transporting, or otherwise dealing in the products of any other producer, processor, or manufacturer, to recognize or bargain with a particular labor organization, or to assign particular work to employees in a particular labor organization or in a particular trade, craft, or class; (5) to require of employees covered by an agreement authorized under this Act to pay, as a condition precedent to becoming a member of such organization, a fee in an amount which the Board finds excessive or discriminatory under all the circumstances; (6) to cause or attempt to cause an employer to pay or deliver or agree to pay or deliver any money or other thing of value, in the nature of an exaction, for services which are not performed or not to be performed; (7) to picket an employer to force an employer to recognize or bargain with a labor organization as the representative of his employees under certain circumstances; and (8) to engage in any strike or picketing in violation of this Act.

Provides that representatives designated or selected for the purposes of collective bargaining by the majority of the employees in a unit appropriate for such purposes shall be the exclusive representative of all the employees in such unit for the purpose of collective bargaining in respect to rates of pay, wages, hours of employment, or other conditions of employment. Provides that an employer shall be required to recognize and bargain with a bargaining representative when that representative has been selected by a majority of the employees in an appropriate unit under this Act.

Empowers the Board to prevent any person from engaging in any unfair labor practice affecting commerce.

Sets forth the procedures whereby the Board shall effect such powers.

Empowers the Board to petition any court of appeals of the United States for the enforcement of such order and for appropriate temporary relief or restraining order.

Provides that any person aggrieved by a final order of the Board granting or denying in whole or in part the relief sought may obtain a review of such order in any circuit court of appeals of the United States.

Provides that no employer shall engage in a lockout involving employees nor shall a labor organization recognized as the representative of employees pursuant to this Act engage in or induce or encourage any individual or any other labor organization to engage in any strike, picketing, or similar activity without giving the opposing party twenty days written notice of its intention to do so.

Provides that any party receiving such a notice of intent may invoke a forty-day period of mediation by giving written notice thereof. Provides that such notice of mediation shall be served upon the opposing party, the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, and the Board.

Provides that the Service shall assign a mediator to assist in the resolution of any dispute during such period.

Authorizes such mediator to impose a binding settlement on the invoking party if accepted by the other party before the forty-day period expires, if the dispute is not otherwise resolved by the parties.

Declares unlawful unfair labor practices by labor organizations under this Act.

Provides that whoever shall be injured in his business or property by reason of any such unfair labor practice may sue therefore in any district court of the United States to recover the damages by him sustained and the cost of the suit.

Authorizes to be appropriated to carry out the provisions of this Act the sum of $3,600,000 annually.