“For me, it is a vote about my conscience”, said Democratic Assemblyman Eduardo Garcia.
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“Right now, under current law, we’re telling our farmworkers, ‘You are different than other workers”.
AB 1066, authored by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzales, D-San Diego, will give fair pay to the state’s estimated 825,000 farm laborers who “ensure that we have fruit, vegetables and wine on our tables”, said Arturo Rodriguez, president of the United Farm Workers of America, which sponsored the measure. “Historically farm workers have been excluded from federal and often local labor law and this is a enormous shift”. Thousands of workers walked off farms in 1970, picketing for farm owners to recognize and negotiate fair labor conditions with the union that Chavez had established almost a decade earlier.
A almost identical bill fell three votes short of passage on the Assembly floor in May, with 15 Democrats voting against the measure or declining to vote. Farm fields have long allowed exploitation of powerless laborers, they argued, from slavery through the immigrant laborers for whom Chavez fought. Jerry Brown will again consider a historic proposal calling for farmworkers to receive the same overtime pay as other hourly workers, after the Assembly approved legislation Monday to phase in the change.
“Overjoyed. Overjoyed”, said Ramos, “finally the farm workers will have justice”.
But that’s not how everyone feels-The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) in California, for example, said the bill would have “devastating impacts”.
The progression of the bill was celebrated by the United Farm Workers, which sent more than 250 individuals to the capital Monday to support the passage, and the United Food and Commercial Workers union. Its agricultural industry raked in more than $50 billion in 2014.
“This bill ultimately will hurt those that it claims to want to help, specifically it’s going to devastate the working families of our farming communities”, said Mathis, vice chair of the Assembly agriculture committee.
Marc Levine, whose District 10 includes the City of Sonoma, El Verano and parts south, was one of four state assemblymembers that did not participate in the vote.
Farmers vehemently oppose it, and third-generation almond and olive farmer Pat Ricchiuti said approval by Brown could prompt him to cut his workers’ take-home pay by as much as 33 percent.
If the bill becomes law, new overtime rules will be phased in over the next 6 years in California.
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A similar version of the bill was defeated by two votes in June. He signed the landmark Agricultural Labor Relations Act when he was governor from 1975 to 1983 and has frequently mentioned his personal relationship with Cesar Chavez, the late labor leader. The Governor, however, has the option to veto the bill.
