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Schwarzenegger gets UFW-backed organizing bill

By JUAN ESPARZA LOERA / Vida En El Valle

A year after rejecting similar legislation, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will be asked to sign a bill designed to make it easier for farmworkers to organize a union by using a secret ballot to directly select union representation or participate in a traditional ballot booth election overseen by the state Agricultural Labor Relations Board.

Assemblymember Fabián Núñez, D-Los Angeles, has worked hard to get AB 2386 passed by the state Senate on Aug. 18 and by the Assembly last Friday. Last month, he released a documentary, 'California Harvest of Shame,' in which he said the legislation would help protect farmworkers from the heat and under-enforced state regulations that pose risks to their lives.

"After a long summer that has seen six farmworkers die in the heat -- despite state laws that were supposed to protect them -- I can think of no better way to honor Labor Day than empowering farmworkers and ensuring that the laws on our books match the realities in the fields," said Núñez last Friday after the Assembly passed his bill by a 43-25 vote.

This year's legislation provides greater protections in the voting process because last year's bill would have allowed workers to sign a union membership card to authorize union representation.

The union claims that farmers coerce and intimidate workers not to vote for the union.

A coalition of 24 farm and business groups opposed the bill.

State Sen. Tom McClintock, R-Thousand Oaks, questioned the need for the legislation during last month's hearing.

"What is it about the right of a secret ballot that bothers you?" he asked the Democrats, who provided all the support needed in a 23-15 vote. "An election in which someone is looking over your shoulder as you cast your vote is no election at all. It's a sham."

United Farm Workers president Arturo Rodríguez said farmworkers are best protected if they have a union.

"The reality is poor people will never get the kind of protection they need," he said last Friday.

Rodríguez said the six farmworker deaths from heat-suspected causes could have been avoided had the state enforced regulations that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed in 2006.

"We've presented him with a good reason why it should be signed, and demonstrated to him that as much as he may want to, there will never be the kind of enforcement that will be necessary," said Rodríguez.

Schwarzenegger attended the funeral services of a 17-year-old girl who died from the heat near a Lodi vineyard in May. The governor, according to Rodríguez, signaled his intent to prevent such deaths in the future.

Since then, five more farmworkers have died from possible heat-related causes.

Send e-mail to: jesparza@vidaenelvalle.com