AB 616 Continued from Page 1
employees “to select their labor represen- tatives through a ... ballot card election by submittingapetitiontotheboard.”Thevote wouldconsistof “cardssignedbyamajority of employees in thebargainingunit.” After the petition and ballot cards go to theAgricultural LaborRelationsBoard, the board would have five days to determine whether the paperwork is legitimate. If it is, theworkplace is unionized. “It is a bill that allows for a simple card check,” Johanssonsaidafter the rally. “This Legislaturelikestocall itamail-inballotand refer to it the sameway” as a general-elec- tionballot.AB616, however, is “completely different than that,” Johansson said. “It denies thecollectivevoiceof employ- ees the opportunity to get together and decide who they want to have represent them,” Johansson said. Hearguedthat thebill “doesn’t take into account all the farmworkers’ voices, who should have a voice when it comes to de- terminingwho represents them, howthey want toberepresentedandwhat theywant their workplace to look like.” The bill “takes away the secret ballot,” Johanssonsaid, and“opens (farmemploy- ees) to intimidation and coercion.” Lopez said lawmakers and the governor should be focusing on water supplies for agricultureratherthantheunionizationbill. “If the farmers don’t have water, we’re not going tohave food,”Lopez said. “We’re not going tohavework.We’re not going to
beable to feedour families, topayour rent, topay everything that weneed. This is our biggest concern.” RonPeterson,whorunsadairy farmand grows silage crops in Stanislaus County, echoed those concerns. “We’re real concerned about water and what the state is doingwith our water, and the fact that they’re going and taking wa- ter rights that have been long precedents, and just shoving them aside—that’s defi- nitely worth protecting,” Peterson said. “Withoutwater, there’snotgoingtobefood. Californiaagriculturewill no longer exist if we don’t have thewater to keep growing.” Peterson said AB 616 takes the ballot away from farmemployees. “For workers to all of a sudden showup one day and be part of a union, and never haveachancetoactuallyvoicetheiropinion and vote on that—we just don’t think that is the right way,” Peterson said. “That’s not theAmericanwayof oneperson, onevote.” Katerina Kronauge, who works in agri- cultural education and membership for theYoloCountyFarmBureau, saidsheand her colleagues came to the rally insupport of California FarmBureau’s efforts. “Wethought that thiswasareallyimport- ant thing to stand up for, andwe really ap- preciate what the California FarmBureau has been doing for the workers and for agriculture inCalifornia,” Kronauge said. Water was top of mind for her, too. “Early in the year, people were trying to
decide whether or not they should plant,” Kronauge said. “There was no guarantee that theywouldbe able to irrigate through the season up to harvest. There’s a lot of people that fallowed land this year andare going tobehurtingbecause they’renot go- ing to have an income fromthat.” That has implications for farmemploy- ment, something Johansson said in his rallyspeechthathewouldstandtoprotect. “Theone thingwearenot going tocheck in California Farm Bureau: We are not going to check having our members, our employees andour communities silenced when it comes to representation and how we handle employment in California,” Johanssonsaidinhisspeech. “We’reproud of the jobs thatwecreate.We’reproud that we reallymakeCalifornia essential. Think about it—we make California essential, and now it’s time for the governor to rec- ognize thatwe’renot essential if there’sno one left towork the land.” Lopez said she was heartened by the farmemployees who came to the rally. “We needmore people to come and ex- pressour concerns,” shesaid, “to tell every- body tocome right here, at thehouseof the government, totell themwedon’tneedthis. “We need more jobs, affordable rent, more education for our kids,” Lopez said. “More important things to fix than to be worried about the 616.” (Kevin Hecteman i s an ass i stant editor of Ag Alert. He may be contacted at khecteman@cfbf.com.)
PatriciaLopez,alabormanageratDuarte Nursery in Hughson, delivered a fiery speech inprotest. Flankedat theCapitol by some twodozenof her colleagues, she said the change in organizing rules could actu- allydiminish the voiceof farmemployees. “We are a very important labor force here inCalifornia,” she said in her speech, delivered in Spanish. “We are essential workerswhomaintain the food supply for people across our nation. Today, we agri- cultural workers are here to tell the gover- nor…thatwedon’t needAB616.Wedon’t need any union to come to our places of work to decide what is good or isn’t good for us. It’s up to us, the workers. We know what we need andwhat we don’t need.” Lopez spelled that out after the rally: “Weneedour jobs,” shesaid. “Weneedwa- ter for agriculture, for our communities.” AB616reachedthegovernor’sdeskSept. 8 after clearing theAssembly and Senate. The legislative counsel’s analysis of the bill says “existing law requires the Agricultural Labor Relations Board to cer- tify the results of anelectionconductedby secret ballot of employees in a collective bargaining unit to designate a collective bargaining representative”—or union. AB 616 insteadwoulddesignate a secret ballot election as a “polling place election” andwouldallowalternativevotingmethods. According to the legislative counsel, those new rules would permit agricultural
12 Ag Alert September 15, 2021
Powered by FlippingBook