Farm workers won a big victory when the California Legislature for the fifth time in as many years passed a bill making it easier for farm workers to choose a union to improve their lives. Last Monday, May 16, after an unusually lengthy floor debate the state Assembly passed SB 104, the Fair Treatment for Farm Workers Act by state Senate leader Darrell Steinberg, on a 51-25 party-line vote. It would let farm workers organize by using the option of a "majority sign-up" method of voting on union representation in addition to the alternative of voting at a polling place on ranch property where growers often cynically coerce and threaten workers. The vote came three years to the day that Maria Isavel Vasquez Jimenez died from the heat after collapsing in a Lodi, Calif.-area vineyard. The farm labor contractor who employed Maria Isavel helped cause her death by flagrantly and repeatedly violating state heat rules. Some 200 farm workers from across the state witnessed the historic vote from the Assembly gallery on May 16. Later, they heard from Assembly Speaker John Perez and Senate President Pro Temp Darrell Steinberg along with other legislative leaders."
Si Se Puede!
Arturo S. Rodriguez, President
United Farm Workers of America