California
State Legislative Bill Watch
“The following bills are
moving through the state legislature and need to be monitored and defeated for
the benefit of agriculture and farm workers,” noted Barry Bedwell, President of
the California Grape and Tree Fruit League in Fresno.
“Our primary focus throughout
the month of August is talking to California Congressional Representatives
about immigration reform,” said Bedwell. “That is our main push right now.”
Bedwell noted that the League
is also focused particularly on two bills in Sacramento.
“The biggest one locally is SB 25, which Dan Gerawan, of Gerawan
Farming is very much involved with,” said Bedwell. “It is a change in the Agriculture
Labor Relations Act that would allow for perpetual mandatory mediation. This
takes away the rights of the farm worker to the point that if there were an
election for unionization, the farmworker would have no say in ratifying the
terms of an agreement—no input whatsoever. As a result, the union would not
have to bargain in good faith. The end result would be that three percent of each
farm worker’s paycheck would go to the union.”
Bedwell noted SB 435 is another important bill and is
authored by State Senator Alex Padilla (D-Pacoima). This bill has to do with
piece-rate work, which would require mandatory payments for breaks as well as
any preventive recovery period having to do with heat illness prevention. “The
current law states that ag employers must provide workers two breaks, and it is
up to the workers to take them. The employer must also provide any number of recovery
periods for any worker who is trying to prevent overheating.”
“Because employers cannot pay
less than minimum wages, we have always contended that those breaks are paid
for already,” said Bedwell. “What the bill calls for is that all the breaks,
whether the worker takes them or not, would be paid separately, apart from the
piece-work income. And in some cases, it would mean that workers would be paid
double.”
The same bill was tried twice
before in 2004 and 2005, and both times were vetoed by former Governor
Schwarzenegger under the theory that the workers were already getting paid well
above minimum wage. Furthermore, it was rejected with the understanding that it
was not necessary for heat illness prevention because there was a big increase
in compliance in agriculture.
“The California Labor
Relations Board is trying to set up a law where compliance is next to
impossible,” said Bedwell. “If you have hundreds of employees, each one could
be on different breaks and for a different amount of breaks. If a grower is
required to account for each worker separately, and pays them separately, then
you are setting up a system in which farmers would be out of compliance and
therefore subject to fines.”
“At the same time, there will
be no improvement regarding heat illness prevention because we are already
making great strides on this. This could have major costs for agriculture,”
Bedwell said.
Labels: Agriculture Labor Relations Act, Alex Padilla, Barry Bedwell, California Grape and Tree Fruit League, California Labor Relations Board, Dan Gerawan, Immigration Reform, Pacoima, SB 25, SB 435, Schwarzenegger