Backgrounder: The Fair Treatment for Farm Workers Act (SB 104)
05/12/2011
**** SB 104 Backgrounder The Fair Treatment for Farm Workers Act (SB 104)
SB 104, a bill by state Senate leader Darrel Steinberg (D-Sacramento), creates a new way for agricultural workers to select their collective-bargaining representatives.
If passed, farm workers would still cast secret ballots on whether to join a union. Or, for the first time, they would participate in equally secret majority signup elections.
The traditional polling place election would remain in the workplace; majority signups – in which workers would sign state-issued ballots – would occur away from farms, far from bosses’ in-your-face threats and intimidation.
If a majority of the workers sign the ballots, the state would certify the union to represent them.
All elections would be overseen by the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board.
Why is the Fair Treatment for Farm Workers Act Needed?
The Steinberg bill is a way for farm workers to more easily express whether they want to be represented by the United Farm Workers. They will have the choice of not joining a union, selecting a union using a polling place election under the current process, or choosing a majority signup election.
On-site elections can engender worker intimidation to sway the outcome: Workers are told by bosses that a union contract would kill the company, with a resultant loss of jobs. Merely voting in the workplace can be daunting.
Off-site elections would help insulate workers from threats and other harassment. Voting would be done with greater peace of mind.
Are we asking for secret ballots to be eliminated?
Absolutely not. With SB 104, farm workers decide how they want to vote – either through a majority signup or a polling place election.
SB 104 provides farm workers with an additional option – they select the voting process. The measure also extends existing prohibitions and penalties for unfair labor practices in connection with majority signup elections.
Differences between Fair Treatment for Farm Workers Act (SB 104) and Ballot elections under Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA).
There are two major differences between the Fair Treatment for Farm Workers Act and EFCA:
Agricultural Employers are not required to be neutral—employers can continue to oppose the union as long as they do not threaten the jobs of their employees.
Government-issued majority sign-up ballots—the Majority signup ballots will not be union authorization cards, but a distinct, government-issued election ballot.
California State Senate passed SB 104 in 2011. The California State legislature has passed a similar bill three other times in previous years.
The Fair Treatment for Farm Workers Act passed the State Senate by a 24-14 vote on March 31, 2011.
On May 16, the Assembly will vote on SB 104, in honor of farm worker Maria Isavel Vasquez Jimenez, 17. The pregnant Lodi teenager died on May 16, 2008. She had collapsed from heat exhaustion two days before on a farm east of Stockton, after laboring more than nine hours without accessible shade or water.
Three earlier versions of SB 104 were vetoed by former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger – twice in 2007 and once in 2009.
