Growers in the valley have long memories, and tensions between farmers and pro-union farmworkers have taken decades to calm from the tumultuous decade of the 1970s when strikes led by the late United Farm Workers President Cesar Chavez turned the industry on its ear.

But Wednesday morning the two camps came together over a common goal: Growers need workers, and workers need legal status.

“After so much sacrifice and efforts in many local and regional areas, we applaud the bi-party immigration project that has reached the Senate; it is just the beginning,” said Casimiro Alvarez, UFW regional director, at a press conference in Salinas on Wednesday. “We have worked so hard in ag areas where numerous workers need to adjust their status, where the biggest ag companies are and where the farmworkers are still suffering family separations.”

The Salinas-based Grower-Shipper Association is part of the umbrella organization that fostered the compromise between labor and industry — the Agriculture Workforce Coalition. Jim Bogart, president and general counsel of Grower-Shipper, said they have been working on immigration reform since 1996 to ensure a consistent and flexible labor supply.

“We’ve been very vocal about the need for immigration reform for agriculture,” Bogart said. “We are very pleased that the Senate bill introduced this morning recognized that ag’s needs are important and different and need to be specifically addressed in any reform package.”

He noted that there’s been an acute and real labor shortage the past couple of years because of border enforcement and immigration raids. In surveys conducted by Grower-Shipper, the No. 1 issue among members has consistently been farm labor availability and immigration reform, Bogart said.

The long-awaited bill includes certain requirements for farm workers to follow that will put them on a path to what the bill calls “earned legalization.” The bill would replace the existing H-2A agricultural guess program with a new visa program with protections for farm workers.

Farmworkers will have the opportunity to apply for a “Blue Card,” a work visa specifically for farmworkers. To apply for the card, a farmworker must demonstrate that he has worked 100 days or 575 hours in agriculture for a 12-month ending in December 2012. They also must not have any conviction for an aggravated felony or three misdemeanors, and pay a $100 processing fee.

“Farmworkers who obtain the Blue Card will continue to work in agriculture, they and their families will be protected from deportation, and that is crucial for farmworkers who pick fruits and vegetables in the fields,” said Ramon Pinal, UFW national representative.

The second step for farmworkers who wish to pursue permanent residency is to show they worked 100 days in agriculture each year for five years. The five years can be be cumulative during an eight-year window. Another option is to work 150 days in agriculture for at least three years during a five-year window.

These provisions will protect the employed farm worker and their families. UFW officials are advising farmworkers to begin collecting pay stubs, tax documents and other material that can be used to prove the blue-card requirements.

“It is very important to let the people know that this is just a proposal; it is not the law yet,” said Pinal. “This will give the opportunity to more than a million farmworkers to adjust their status and apply for legalization, and we believe this will improve the farm workers’ conditions.”

“For me, it would bring lots of benefits,” said one farmworker who attended the UFW press conference. “I will be able to visit my parents. It’s been eight years that I haven’t seen them, and I will be treated differently here and maybe be better paid.”