The California Supreme Court just refused to hear an appeal from Napa Valley's Hess winery challenging the landmark 2002 binding mediation law sponsored by the UFW. Recently a state appeals court upheld this law letting farm workers call in state arbitrators to hammer out union contracts when growers refuse to negotiate agreements. The agricultural industry sued to overturn the law shortly after it took affect.

The winery can file one more appeal, to the U.S. Supreme Court. But there is little chance such an appeal would be accepted by the nation's highest court. That means the binding mediation law is settled law in California. Farm workers at companies where they have voted for the union but where employers drag out negotiations have an important weapon to win what they voted for: the life-changing benefits of UFW contracts. Workers at one of the state's largest vegetable producers, D'Arrigo Bros. in the Salinas Valley, have been trying to negotiate a UFW contract since 1977.