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Assembly passes bill sympathetic to farmworkers

Gainesville Sun – September 8, 2011

Farmworker unions in California would be certified automatically if an employer is found to be guilty of election misconduct under a bill that passed the state Assembly Thursday.

SB126 by Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, a Democrat from Sacramento, would punish election misconduct by growers by allowing the state Agricultural Labor Relations Board to grant the farmworkers’ union automatic certification. It passed the Assembly on a 46-24 vote and heads to the Senate.

Democratic Assemblyman Luis Alejo of Watsonville, who carried the bill in the Assembly, said the legislation addresses employer misconduct while protecting the rights of agricultural workers. Assemblyman Bill Monning, D-Whittier, said the bill was framed as a compromise worked out with the governor to address the employers who knowingly violate workers’ rights.

“It is a remedy to bring balance in an arena to affect the worst actors – not the people who played by the rules, not the people who follow the election laws, but for the people who consciously violate the law,” he said.

Republican Assemblyman and ranch owner Bill Berryhill of Ceres said the bill enacts a dangerous policy that gives too much power to bureaucrats who haven’t been officially appointed.

“This is simply stacking the deck against agriculture,” he said. “And I might add agriculture is one of the bright spots in the Golden State’s economy right now, and we’re going out to destroy it.”

Berryhill said the growers would have been willing to negotiate a bill that worked with both parties, but the final language instead pits farmers against their employees.

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