SALINAS CALIFORNIAN

September 3, 2007

The future of farm labor organizing is in the cards
 

By JAKE HENSHAW
The Salinas Californian Capitol Bureau

SACRAMENTO - It's up to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to decide whether to change the rules for organizing farm workers.

To become the collective bargaining agent for an agricultural company's workers, farm labor organizers now must win a majority vote from the workers using state-supervised secret ballots.

But this past Monday, the state Senate sent the governor Senate Bill 180, which would give a union, such as the United Farm Workers, the option to collect a majority of farm workers' signatures on state-issued cards to become their representative in wage and benefit negotiations.

Proponents say the bill gives workers a choice about how to organize and a chance to ensure, with union training and support, that

employee protection laws are enforced.

"The laws on the books are not the laws in the fields," said Giev Kashkooli, the UFW legislative and political director.

Opponents, however, argue that the bill is fundamentally undemocratic.

"It is a bad law," said James Bogart, president of the Grower-Shipper Association of Central California. "It goes totally contrary to the intended purpose of the Agriculture Labor Relations Law and the sanctity of the ballot."

The fight over the bill now moves to the governor, seen by both sides as their friend. Schwarzenegger is a businessman and a governor who backed rules to protect workers in hot weather.

Representatives of both sides said they planned to contact Schwarzenegger through visits to his staff, letters and e-mail. An estimated 500 letters have been sent by farm interests by one account, and a UFW lobby day is scheduled for Wednesday.

"The governor once again is on the hot seat of deciding among the interests of various constituencies," said Bob Perkins, executive director of the Monterey County Farm Bureau.

Schwarzenegger has 12 days to act on the bill once it reaches his desk.

National bill has stalled

SB 180 by Sen. Carole Migden, D-San Francisco, revises a significant feature of the state's Agricultural Labor Relations Act, passed in 1975, which included the secret ballot provision with UFW support.

The change sought in unionizing methods is part of a larger strategy by labor in the state and nationally to allow workers to organize using a majority sign-up election, also known as a card-check election.

Led by UNITE HERE, - which has more than 450,000 members in North America and represents workers in the apparel and textile industries, hotels, casinos and restaurants - labor groups have pushed for card check in California tribal gambling compacts, and legislation establishing this option nationally passed the House of Representatives but stalled in the U.S. Senate.

"This continues to be the No. 1 priority for the national labor movement, pushing for card check at every opportunity," said Caitlin Vega, legislative advocate for the California Labor Federation.

SB 180, which is sponsored by the UFW, would give agricultural workers and unions the choice of using secret ballots or a card-check approach. If card check is chosen, organizers would have up to a year to sign up workers, Migden's staff said. Vega said card-check elections can happen more quickly.

Kashkooli said it's "disingenuous" for agricultural interests to complain the bill is undemocratic, because they and others sometimes hold elections in water districts where votes are apportioned based on amount and value of property owned.

"I think it really comes down to maybe what we see as the most democratic way to determine what people want," Vega said of card check.

Proponents also argue the bill is necessary to counter what they say is sophisticated intimidation of workers by some employers in campaigns leading up to secret elections.

"We are hoping to make it easier for workers to join a union," Kashkooli said.

Foes: Tool to boost unions

More workers joining unions will lead to collective power to improve enforcement of laws on wages, pesticide use and hot-weather work, proponents say.

"Clearly in this case, government has shown it cannot enforce the laws," Kashkooli said.

But Bogart disagreed.

"You have the Employment Development Department, the labor commissioner, CAL-OSHA and any number of administrative and regulatory agencies that routinely monitor and enforce labor and employment and safety laws, particularly as they pertain to farm workers," he said.

Critics of the law also say it would only increase the opportunity for unions to pressure workers into signing cards as part of labor's efforts to rejuvenate its flagging fortunes.

If there really is a communication problem between unions and workers, then that should be the target of legislation, Perkins said.

"If in fact that is a problem, that is where the issue should go," he said. "Taking away the secret ballot is not a good answer to that."