Sacramento, Calif. – A bill by state Senate leader Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) to help enforce workplace laws and make it easier for California’s farm workers to choose a union has been passed by the state Senate. SB 104, the Fair Treatment for Farm Workers Act, would allow workers to organize by using the option of a "majority sign-up" method of voting. Today’s floor vote in the upper house was 24 to 15.
“Farm workers only want to have the basic protections of accessible drinking water, shade from intense heat and the opportunity to make a living wage,” said Steinberg. “California has workplace laws on the books, but those laws are sometimes ignored in our state’s fields, vineyards and orchards. Fifteen workers, including pregnant teenager Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez in San Joaquin County, have died from heat-related illnesses since the state heat regulation went into effect in 2005. This bill is designed so workers can better protect themselves by fairly choosing whether or not they want union organization.”
State law requires employers to provide farm workers with adequate shade, drinking water and rest breaks. Nevertheless, two years after the heat regulation passed state inspectors found the rules were being violated by more than half the employers they audited.
"We appreciate Senator Steinberg’s leadership again this year and we are confident Governor Brown won’t treat this bill the way Governor Schwarzenegger did," said United Farm Workers President Arturo S. Rodriguez.
Currently, agricultural workers can only vote for or against union organization in a polling place election, usually on the ranch property, a process that often results in workers being intimidated by their employers. This bill would give farm workers the option of submitting a petition to the Agriculture Labor Relations Board accompanied by representation cards signed by a majority of the bargaining unit.
The legislation is sponsored by the United Farm Workers of America.
After adjournment of the Senate floor session, the Senate leader personally delivered the bill to Assembly Speaker John Pérez. The measure will be taken up by Assembly committees.