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Following a March ruling by Monterey Superior Court Judge Thomas W. Wills that the United Farm Workers owed 24 organizers back wages for requiring these individuals to work over 40 hours a week without paid meal periods for over four years, the UFW was ordered to pay these back wages and corresponding legal penalties using its dues. The $1.2 million sum will be taken out of the dues deducted from paychecks of farm workers across four different produce companies, and this sum is expected to be well over $2 million once attorney fees and other costs involved are accounted for. This quantity comprises nearly half of all dues paid to the UFW by all of its members last year. Armando Elenes, a spokesperson on behalf of the UFW, has stated that the union plans on fighting this order through the appeals system.