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Farm overtime bill's fate up to governor
By Susan Ferriss
For nearly 70 years,
Democratic state Sen. Dean Florez – who comes from a
This month, Democrats in the state Assembly approved a bill by Florez
that would give farmworkers the same overtime benefits other
Now Florez, of Shafter, is working to persuade Republican Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger – who has a history of supporting new safety laws for
farmworkers – to buck industry pressure and sign Senate Bill 1121, which
already has passed the Senate.
Agribusiness interests are lobbying furiously against the bill, arguing
that it could reduce paychecks to farmworkers if farmers opted to cut
their hours to avoid paying overtime.
"I think employers will adjust" to "minimize their costs," if the bill
passes, said
If employers face a lower threshold, they will try to cope by switching
crews in the middle of a job, or even plowing under crops, Little said.
"They're going to say, 'Those extra acres of onions aren't worth
harvesting so I'm going to disc it under,' " Little said. "They're going
to look at their crews and say, 'I'm sorry, it's just not worth paying
more.' "
Florez said every time an attempt is made to increase rights for farm
laborers, the industry has fought back by saying it won't survive such
change.
He said in the 1970s, the industry fought getting rid of short-handled
hoes for weeding fields by arguing that a prohibition would put farmers
out of business.
But the industry argues that there is a core reason for having a higher
threshold for overtime pay: farming is affected by sudden weather
changes, and summer heat quickens the ripening of crops, requiring long
hours to bring them in.
Florez said farmers are doing well enough to share more of the profits
from
"These are factories in the fields," Florez said. "We shouldn't buy into
the argument that this is different type of work."
He said it's been easy to block lifting the exemption for so long
because farmworkers are mostly "disempowered" immigrants.
In recent years, he said, the industry fought other bills, which were
ultimately successful, to prevent field hands from being transported in
unsafe vehicles in which workers sat on paint cans or benches.
Florez noted that Schwarzenegger signed his bill to require that
contractors assume more responsibility for the medical costs of workers
hit by pesticide drift.
"They (the workers) would get a $1,000 ambulance bill," Florez said.
The governor's in-laws are Kennedys, who were close to farm labor leader
Cesar Chavez.
Schwarzenegger most recently pushed for stronger heat regulations to
protect workers.
As a youth in Kern
County, Florez packed potatoes in a shed, a job that entitled him to
overtime after eight hours – unlike the field hands who brought in the
potatoes.
He called the 1941 exemption "probably one of the last vestiges of rural
Jim Crow" in
In an orchard near Yuba,
workers climbing ladders to thin peaches recently in 90-degree heat said
they favor lifting the exemption.
The workers said they didn't believe most employers would take the time
and energy to try to swap out crews in the middle of a harvest to avoid
overtime.
Nicolasa Torres said she's been paid overtime after eight hours while
packing produce in a shed that was more comfortable than the fields.
"Working in the fields is a much more killer job," she said in Spanish,
patting her back with a wince.
"It's not a moral issue," Underhill said. "Is agriculture a different
workplace than a factory? Despite the argument that it isn't, it is. The
reality is we need a wage rule that reflects that."
The United Farm Workers didn't initially lobby for Florez's bill but now
supports it.
"This bill really illustrates the inequities of excluding farmworkers
from protections other workers in
Because of warnings from growers that they would cut hours, Calderon
said the union has also "communicated that many workers had mixed
feelings" about the proposal.
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