United Farm Workers President Arturo S. Rodriguez issued this statement while marching along the 200-mile, 13-day route to Sacramento as part of the UFW’s “Fair Treatment for Farm Workers Now” campaign, in response to Gov. Jerry Brown’s appointment of Sylvia Torres Guillen as General Counsel to the state Agricultural Labor Relations Board:
“The General Counsel of the ALRB is supposed to be the top prosecutor of those who violate farm-labor laws –and the chief advocate for California’s farm workers. The mission of the Agricultural Labor Relations Act, as stated in its preamble, is to ‘ensure peace in the agricultural fields by guaranteeing justice for all agricultural workers and stability in labor relations.’ The ALRA further states ‘it is the policy of the State of California to encourage and protect the right of farm workers to act together to help themselves’ and to balance the historic imbalance of power between agricultural worker and agricultural employer.
“No impartial observer could accurately state that there is justice for today’s agricultural workers.
“We are hopeful Ms. Guillen can use her legal experience to be a top advocate for farm workers, but sadly, we believe Ms. Guillen will soon be as frustrated as we are with the flaws in the laws she will try to enforce.
“The reality is that the laws in the books are not the laws in the fields – even when well-intentioned people oversee the departments responsible for enforcing those laws. While investigating two more recent deaths of farm workers from possible heat illness, Cal-OSHA has been unable to ensure that many other farm workers receive water and shade this summer. The agency’s continued failure under the Brown administration to protect farm workers demonstrates that government enforcement by itself is inadequate.
“What Governor Brown referred to in his veto message of SB 104 as ‘the process’ he wants to protect in the Agricultural Labor Relations Act is really a ‘loophole’ that expensive lawyers can exploit. Regrettably, we were unable to convince the Governor that the law he is stubbornly proud of does not work.
“Farm workers acting together to help themselves by marching for Fair Treatment for Farm Workers Now deserve the best tools and the strongest advocate. We hope that Governor Brown will sign the Fair Treatment for Farm Workers Act when it again reaches his desk. Its enactment would give Ms. Guillen the tools to enforce the ALRA, and help restore the ALRA’s mission of balancing the historic imbalance of power between agricultural worker and agricultural employer.”
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