New York’s Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) is the state government agency responsible for overseeing farm union activities in the state. New York’s farm union law is new, only becoming effective in 2020, so the experiences and legal challenges in these early years from unions, employees, and employers have pushed PERB to make changes to their rules of procedure.
On April 30th, 2025, PERB released it’s much-anticipated Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. Interested parties should read the rules, consider carefully how they might be affected, and make comments directly to PERB. The proposed changes can be accessed on the PERB website, note that underlined text is to be added, while [bracketed text] is to be deleted.
Comments on the proposed rules are due 60 days after April 30, 2025, and should be sent to PERB as follows:
By email to Deputy Chair Sarah Coleman at: sarah.coleman@perb.ny.gov.
By U.S. mail to:
Public Employment Relations Board
Attn: Sarah Coleman
PO Box 2074
Albany, NY 12220-0074
Topics addressed in the proposed rule are substantial, including: clarification of petitions and responses, decertification of unions by employees, and guidance about charges of unfair labor practices, among others.
By Richard Stup, Cornell University. Permission granted to repost, quote, and reprint with author attribution.
The post Farm Unions: PERB proposes rule changes, Comments due by end of June appeared in The Ag Workforce Journal.
