Wayne County, NY — On December 2, 2025, a judge in Wayne County, New York ruled that Wafler Farms, a major apple producer and nursery in upstate New York, must implement the UFW contract it had been refusing to implement for months on end. The long standoff between Wafler management and workers has been ongoing since April 24, 2025, when Wafler Farms failed to implement the UFW contract imposed upon it by a New York State Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) appointed arbitrator. The Wayne County judge also dismissed the latest effort by Wafler Farms to reverse the UFW’s certification as the collective bargaining representative of farm workers at Wafler, where the UFW has represented both seasonal and year-round workers since winning a union majority in May 2023.
“This is a major victory for the workers at Wafler Farms and for farm workers across the State of New York,” said UFW Secretary Treasurer Armando Elenes. “Wafler Farms’ shameful and desperate legal stalling tactics have already resulted in Wafler Farms’ seasonal workforce going an entire work season without the higher wages and better benefits their union contract entitled them to. Many of those seasonal workers are now home in Jamaica, where several have lost their homes following the devastation of Hurricane Melissa. The higher wages their UFW contract will guarantee them going forward will be of great assistance to them in this difficult time. Furthermore, the UFW will be requesting that all back wages, terms and benefits be paid to all workers for the 2025 season. This UFW union contract should have been implemented in April. With this ruling, the time to finally implement it is right now.”
Wafler Farms will be the second UFW contract to be implemented in the State of New York. Legal battles to implement similar UFW contracts continue at additional farms in Western New York and in the Hudson Valley. Workers at Wafler Farms have consistently expressed concerns about unfair treatment in the workplace, including instances of verbal abuse documented by UFW members. In October, shortly before the end of the 2025 work season, Wafler workers also held a demonstration and press conference demanding implementation of their union contract.
A Go-Fund-Me organized by Jamaican UFW members, including at Wafler Farms, to support Jamaican workers who lost their homes in Hurricane Melissa has also been established.
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