California Farmworkers Rebound after Veto
California Governor Jerry Brown’s June veto of a bill making it easier for the state’s 400,000 farmworkers to organize caught the Farm Workers union (UFW) by surprise.
Brown was considered a friend of farmworkers because, as governor, he had signed the landmark Agricultural Labor Relations Act of 1975, which established collective bargaining for farmworkers in the state. (Agricultural workers, along with domestic workers, are excluded from federal rights to organize.)
In Brown’s latest gubernatorial campaign, he had made much of his personal relationship with deceased UFW President Cesar Chavez. But Brown rejected card check organizing rights for farmworkers.
To protest the veto, UFW members and supporters began a 12-day, 200-mile march to the state Capitol. Thirty workers started the march in Madera in the San Joaquin Valley and walked through the streets of Merced, Livingston, Turlock, Stockton, and Galt in the summer heat, reaching Sacramento on September 4.
By that time their contingent had swelled by thousands of supporters who joined them on the last two miles of their journey, waving the UFW’s red flags.
What was planned as a protest turned into a celebration rally. Shortly before, Brown did a partial about-face, offering a compromise that would give farmworkers greater protections within existing law.
More than 5,000 people hailed the new proposals:
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• Immediate certification of a union if employer election violations could have affected a unionization vote.
• An expedited process to certify election results.
• Authority for the state to go to court to reinstate farmworkers who are illegally fired during union drives.
The legislature subsequently passed the new law.
According to UFW organizer Maria Machuca, the union sees Brown’s proposals as evidence that he is not completely inflexible on the ìmajority sign-up” rights he vetoed in June, which would have allowed farmworkers to bypass the traditional representation election.
The union will continue pushing for the right of farmworkers to select a union without boss intimidation, Machuca said, making it likely tensions between Brown and farmworkers will persist.
