Oct 11, 2011

California governor signs farm labor law

Both farmworker advocates and growers say they can live with a compromise measure Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law Sunday that makes it easier for farmworkers to organize.

SB 126 was a watered down version of a bill that both Brown and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger had previously vetoed.

SB 104 would have allowed farmworkers to vote on union representation with a “majority signup election” off-site, as opposed to the secret-ballot elections now held at the workplace.

United Farm Workers and other farm labor advocates had pushed for the earlier proposal, saying worksite elections made it too easy for growers to intimidate workers as they voted. The Bakersfield Californian

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