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Get Off My Property!
Townhall.com ^ | March 24, 2021 | John Stossel

Posted on 03/24/2021 1:16:12 PM PDT by Kaslin

Before dawn, dozens of union activists invaded a strawberry farm, shouting through bullhorns. This frightened workers and infuriated the farm's owner, Mike Fahner, who thought that in America, owning property means you have a right to control access to that property -- your home is your castle, and all that.

Not in California, where politicians allow union organizers to raid farms.

"If I didn't allow them, I'm the one going to jail," says an outraged Fahner in my new video. "That is asinine."

The property invasion law's supporters say the United Farm Workers union deserves the exception to property rules because rich farmers abuse migrant workers.

I threw their argument at Fahner, who replied that it's absurd to say he abuses workers, because they keep coming back: "450 people travel 400 miles. ... Why in the world, if they were being abused, would they continue to return year after year?"

Because they don't know they have other options, says the union. They also don't know about their right to unionize, so unions must come onto farms to tell them about union benefits.

The union's predawn farm invasion didn't win over many of Fahner's employees. Fewer than 10% joined the union. Fahner already pays almost double California's minimum wage.

But the protests themselves impose a cost. He only has six weeks to harvest, pack, ship and process his strawberry plants. "If we miss that window, you destroy the fields."

In response to the farmers' complaints, California Deputy Attorney General Matthew Wise claimed, "Any access to the property is brief, unobtrusive..."

But the law allows union organizers to enter a farm three hours a day, up to 120 days a year. That's hardly "brief" or "unobtrusive."

This week, Fahner and another business, Fowler Packing, challenged the law at the Supreme Court. I hope the Court sends a strong message to California's union-owned politicians: Get off people's private property!

In earlier court battles, Wise said the exception to private property rules is justified because "workers remain isolated ... from the flow of information that is characteristic of modern society."

But that's not true. Maybe it was true in 1975 when the law passed, but now there's the internet. And cellphones.

"Every person has a cellphone in their pocket," says Fahner

"All have phones?" I ask.

"Yes," Fahner replies. "They know how to communicate through Facebook and through Twitter, much better than most!"

Even if they didn't, the union could always approach workers after work at their motels.

"All those union people had access to (the motel rooms). They could knock on their door and talk to them about their agenda."

Plus, the union has two radio stations.

But it's much more fun to intimidate businesses with predawn protests.

California officials now argue that this Supreme Court case "threatens ... public health." Leftist media like Vox quickly agrees, claiming that denying access to farms "could endanger government functions like fire inspection and workplace safety."

But that's not true, says Fahner's pro-bono attorney from the Pacific Legal Foundation, Joshua Thompson. He points out that "Those types of routine government inspections are searching in a reasonable manner. What happened here is the government is taking our property... just giving that to a third party to come on to proselytize. To use bullhorns to intimidate."

I asked the United Farm Workers union for their side of the story. They didn't respond.

So, in my video, Fahner gets the last word.

He uses it well, saying, "This is trespassing. You should be going to jail for doing this."


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Government
KEYWORDS: supremecourt

1 posted on 03/24/2021 1:16:12 PM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

How did Biden do that double barrel Blast thing??


2 posted on 03/24/2021 1:23:26 PM PDT by Vaquero ( Don't pick a fight with an old guy. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you. )
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To: Kaslin

It’s because of the unions that dingbats passed a rule against gig workers. They got their a$$es handed back to them at the polls last November though.


3 posted on 03/24/2021 1:33:58 PM PDT by NohSpinZone (First thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers)
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To: Kaslin

Unions are part of the Democrats Gestapo.


4 posted on 03/24/2021 1:35:53 PM PDT by antidemoncrat
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To: Kaslin

They have decided that all property in Ca including your person is “Public community property in common”. There is no longer any such thing as Private Property. They have taught everyone in Ca this by examples such as “set back and public Right Of Way” encroachment codes, and Socialist indoctrination.

Where your front yard and drive way up to the front door of your home is considered “public access”. I wish folks would start refusing to pay taxes on that percentage that has been stolen by local codes. That misconception would change quick when the County and State start losing tax revenue.


5 posted on 03/24/2021 1:44:38 PM PDT by Openurmind (The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world it leaves to its children. ~ D. Bonhoeffer)
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To: antidemoncrat

The unions put the hard earned pay of the forced to join members into supporting ON:Y demon rat candidates, so your observation is spot on! Unions are demon rat criminal enterpries. They are shakedown artists protected by illicit laws the demon rat party votes into position.


6 posted on 03/24/2021 1:44:54 PM PDT by MHGinTN (A dispensation perspective is a powerful tool for discernment)
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To: antidemoncrat

Well-deserving a 12ga response at every turn, in my utterly fed-up opinion.


7 posted on 03/24/2021 1:46:41 PM PDT by HKMk23 (INADEQUACY: If this keeps up, we may not be able to let you help us anymore.)
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To: Kaslin

Melons, not strawberries, but close enough.

8 posted on 03/24/2021 1:48:08 PM PDT by Pearls Before Swine
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To: Kaslin

https://youtu.be/s-ui9m8MD0I?t=324


9 posted on 03/24/2021 1:49:38 PM PDT by Hillarys Gate Cult (This space for rant.)
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To: Kaslin

How about they go invade Pelosi’s vineyards? I’d like to see that!


10 posted on 03/24/2021 1:59:21 PM PDT by rfreedom4u ("You may all go to hell and I will go to Texas")
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To: Kaslin

bkmk


11 posted on 03/24/2021 1:59:55 PM PDT by sauropod (Chance favors the prepared mind.)
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To: Kaslin

USSKalifornia.

Just look for the union’s *trespassing* label.


12 posted on 03/24/2021 2:02:12 PM PDT by Jane Long (America, Bless God....blessed be the Nation 🙏🏻🇺🇸)
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To: Kaslin

Ridiculous.


13 posted on 03/24/2021 2:16:10 PM PDT by DouglasKC
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To: Kaslin; All
"Because they don't know they have other options, says the union. They also don't know about their right to unionize,"
FR: Never Accept the Premise of Your Opponent’s Argument

Union bosses don’t seem to understand that the only union recognized under the Constitution is the Union of states.

The bottom line is that the only power that a union has is the right of union members to vote in government elections like any other voting-qualified citizen.

Also, property owners need to work with state lawmakers to win the property rights protections that they want.

14 posted on 03/24/2021 2:29:28 PM PDT by Amendment10
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To: Kaslin

Have you noticed that “private property” doesn’t mean anything any more? You now have to provide free rent to your tenants and you won’t be getting the back rent, ever.

Thus the democrats have stolen your private property without anyone ever catching on. (I caught on - nothing they do can fool me.)


15 posted on 03/24/2021 2:52:40 PM PDT by I want the USA back (The nation is in the grips of incurable hysterical insanity, as usual.)
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To: Kaslin
But it's much more fun to intimidate businesses with predawn protests.

Predawn protests?

Call the workers key people and have them hold an hour showing up that day.

Then, "Beware of the Dogs."

.

16 posted on 03/24/2021 2:52:50 PM PDT by TLI (ITINERIS IMPENDEO VALHALLA)
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